From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Why are debian-based systems still so popular for desktop usage? The lack of package updates creates a lot of unnecessary issues which were already fixed by the devs.
Newer (not bleeding edge) packages have verifiably less issues, e.g. when comparing the packages of a Debian and Fedora distro.
That's why I don't recommend Mint
This is where I see atomic distros like Silverblue becoming the new way to get reliable systems, and up to date packages. Because the base system is standardised there can be a lot more QA as there is alot less entropy in the installed system. Plus free rollbacks if something goes wrong. You don't get that by default on Debian.
Distrobox can be used to install other programs (including GUI apps), I currently run Steam in a distrobox container on Silverblue and vscode with all of my development stuff in another one. And of course use flatpaks from FlatHub where I can, these are more stable than distro packages imo (when official) as the developers are developing for a single target with defined library versions. Not whatever ancient version Debian has or the latest which appeared on Arch very soon after release.
I've tried Debian a couple of times but it's just too out of date. I like new stuff and when developing stuff I need new stuff and it's not good enough to just install the development/unsupported versions of Debian. It's probably great for servers, but I think atomic distros will be taking over that space as well, eventually.
Debian desktop user here, and I would happily switch to RHEL on the desktop.
I fully agree, outdated packages can be very annoying (running a netbook with disabled WIFI sleep mode right now, and no, backported kernel/firmware don't solve my problem.)
For some years, I used Fedora (and I still love the community and have high respect for it).
Fedora simply does not work for me:
Of course, I could now start playing around with containerizing everything I need for work somehow and run something like Silverblue, perhaps I might do it someday, but then I would again need to update my IaC every 6-12months, would have to take care of overlays AND containers etc....
When people go 'rolling' or 'Fedora', they simply choose a different set of problems. I am happy we have choice and I can choose the trouble I have to life with.
On a more positive note: This also shows how far Linux has come along, I always play around with the latest/BETA Fedora Gnome/KDE images in a VM, and seriously don't feel I am missing anything in Debian stable.
Debian systems are verified to work properly without subtle config breakages. You can run Debian practically unattended for a decade and it's chug along. For people who prefer their device to actually work, and not just be a maintenance princess, it's ideal.
How do you get the flavor out of it?
I have a feeling this is a joke. Either way I'm not following sorry 😭
Is there a desktop environment with full wayland support other than Gnome and Plasma? I'd really like LXQT but without X.
I know about Sway and Hyprland but would prefer it if I didn't have to install and configure all the parts of a DE separately.
What's the difference between /bin and /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin from an architectural point of view? And how does sbin relate to this?
How the hell do I set up my NAS (Synology) and laptop so that I have certain shares mapped when I'm on my home network - AND NOT freeze up the entire machine when I'm not???
For years I've been un/commenting a couple of lines in my fstab but it's just not okay to do it that way.
Any word on the next generation of matrix math acceleration hardware? Is anything currently getting integrated into the kernel? Where are the gource branches looking interesting for hardware pulls and merges?
Ctrl Alt f1 f2 etc. Why do these desktops/cli exist. What was their intended purpose and what do people use them for today? Is it just legacy of does it stll serve a purpose?
Each one is a virtual terminal and you can use them just like any other terminal. They exist because the easiest way to put some kind of a interactive display up is to just write text to a framebuffer and that’s exactly what your computer does when it boots and shows all that scrolling stuff. The different ones are just different framebuffers that the video card is asked to display when you push ctrl-alt-fnumber. You can add more or disable them altogether if you like.
Years ago my daily driver was a relatively tricked out compaq laptop and I used a combination of the highest mode set I could get, tmux and a bunch of curses based utilities to stay out of x for as much of the time as I could.
I mean, each vt had a slightly different colored background image, the text colors were configured, it was slick.
I used to treat them like multiple desktops.
With libcaca I was even able to watch movies on it without x.
I still use them when x breaks, which did happen last year to my surprise. If your adapter supports a vesa mode that’s appropriate to your monitor then you can use one with very fresh looking fonts and have everything look clean. Set you a background image and you’re off to the races with ncurses programs.
If your system is borked sometimes you can boot into those and fix it. I'm not yet good enough to utilize that myself though, I'm still fairly new to linux too.