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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Oh Snap! Canonical now doing manual reviews for new packages due to scam apps (www.gamingonlinux.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

My thing (I'm not the guy you replied to) is all the various user-facing complaints that I tend to see in these discussions. I use a distro where I can get current versions of anything I've ever needed, and I know how to maintain my system.

As a user, even if the various alternatives are fine most of the time, without concerns about security, integration, etc - I've never read anything that would make me want the additional complication. (I say this recognizing that there are security concerns regardless of how you get your software - I'm not saying these new solutions are inherently worse in that regard.)

I suppose at some point I'll want or need to embrace flatpak/appimage/snaps, but I can't find any reason I'd do so now - it feels like it increases the number of gotchas I need to worry about when installing software without actually giving me anything I want that I don't already get with my "legacy" package manager.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

We dont live in such a perfect world. Linux has a small marketshare for non-server software, so packaging is done by your distro.

You would need to have user-facing settings for Apparmor or SELinux to replicate what already exists with Flatpak.

Principle of least privilege.

Maybe you prefer native packages, but bubblejail or SELinux confined users are complicated as hell and both are pre-alpha in my experience.

So yes you add bloat, dependencies etc. But you also add stability, a small core system, take load of OS developers and unify the packaging efforts so that it is done by developers not packagers.

This reduces complexity a lot, as the underlying system is not as important anymore, and you can just use whatever you want. Software is separated from the OS.

Flatpak is the only good format, as explained in this talk

(Snap has no sandboxing outside of Ubuntu and is thus not portable, Appimages are inherently insecure)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I will check out the video, thanks! I still say you can have the aur and arch repos when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers, but I'm openminded.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

explained in this talk

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.