Gnome is the desktop environment. You may have gnome already installed if that’s what your OS uses, otherwise you probably have KDE. There are others but those are the 2 big ones.
The Desktop Environment is what gives the OS its look, and typically which GUI programs are installed by default.
That’s just scratching the surface. You can go even deeper and „make your own” desktop environment. Desktop environment is kind of like a pack of software that has a cohesive look and feel. You can leave that and pick and choose programs on your own and configure them to your liking. You can configure KDE or gnome, but this gives you even more control :)
I wouldn’t worry too much about the package manager, just worry about whether the distro has a good package repository. If it has all the software you want to use, then use it. In my opinion, most package managers (dnf, apt, pacman, xbmp) are basically the same, and you would only notice a big difference if you ever tried to make your own package for your own software.
That said, a few package managers are very different from all the rest:
Crux OS “prt-get”: simple and stupid: just downloads and installs tar archives.
Gentoo “emerge”: builds all software from source code when you install it. This provides some guarantees that the source code was not tampered with by the distro maintainers, this is great if you need to review all of the source code that is running on your system, but terrible for most people who don’t want to spend so much computing power on compiling stuff every time you do a software update.
Nix and Guix: creates its own blockchain-like database of isolated package dependency chains on your system, allowing you to instantly roll-back to the previous set of installed packages if you ever install something that breaks your system. It also guarantees that the software can be checked bit-for-bit (using SHA hash) traced back to the exact version and dependencies of the source code that built it. Nix and Guix packages also live peacefully side-by-side with any other package manager since all Nix/Guix apps are completely self-contained within its own database. In a way, it is sort of like one big AppImage or Docker container, but you can just keep adding or removing stuff to it as often as you want.
Silverblue, SteamOS, VanillaOS, BlendOS, CarbonOS: distributes “immutable images,” so it is impossible modify the operating system at all. Updates will ship an entirely new operating system with all packages built-in. However you are allowed to install software into your home directory, and you can install FlatPacks and AppImages. This provides a great deal of security in exchange for a tiny bit of inconvenience.
My personal preference: I use ordinary Debian or Ubuntu to install the critical software that needs to be stable and reliable, and I use Guix OS on the side to install the bleeding-edge things that might break a lot.
I couldn’t disagree more! Package managers are actually the only thing which differentiates distributions by a large margin. Syntax should be intuitive, download/updates fast and reliable. Also when watching git repositories for new software alternatives, you e.g. see often packages for good package managers, whereas you need to go some extra mile for “stable” package managers.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the package manager, just worry about whether the distro has a good package repository.
download/updates fast and reliable. Also when watching git repositories for new software alternatives, you e.g. see often packages for good package managers, whereas you need to go some extra mile for “stable” package managers.
But I would say these are not features of the package manager software, rather they are features of the package repository, that is, the online service that provides the packages. It doesn’t matter if you use Apt, DNF, Pacman, if the package repo is slow, fully of packages that haven’t been built right, the package manager software won’t do much to make it better.
But like I said, a few package manager are really unique, like Gentoo Emerge, Crux Prt-Get, and Nix and Guix.
Also, bit part of Portage (Gentoo “emerge”) is being able to ‘flag out’ parts of the package out (or in) to the compilation.
Let’s say you want to not have telemetry in your packages. So you set ‘-telemetry’ globally, and each package that has known telemetry parts will not compile locally - so it can not be turned on (unless it’s hidden really well).
Or you want to use pulseaudio? You can flag it globally, or for specific packages. That way you can influence software you install without knowing much about anything build-related - the work is done by the repository maintainers.
They won’t be able to pry Gentoo from my cold dead hands. Arch, Nix/Guix can suck it, all my money goes to the Gentoo
Distro packages and to some extent Flatpaks, use shared libraries which can be updated independently of your app.
So for example, if a vulnerability is discovered in say, curl, or imagemagick, ffmpeg or whatever library an app is using: for AppImages, this won’t be fixed until you update all of your AppImages. In Flatpak, it usually can be updated as part of a dependency, or distributed as a rebuild and update of the Flatpak. With distro packages, you can usually update the library itself and be done with it already.
AppImages are convenient for the user in that you can easily store them, move them, keep old versions around forever easily. It still doesn’t guarantee it’ll still run in distros a couple years for now, it guarantees that a given version will forever be vulnerable if any of its dependencies are because they’re bundled in, it makes packages that are much much bigger than they need to be, and you have to unpack/repack them if you need library shims.
Different kinds of tradeoffs and goals, essentially. Flatpak happens to be a compromise a lot of people agree on as it provides a set of distro-agnostic libraries while also not shifting the burden entirely onto the app developers. The AppImage developer is intentionally keeping Wayland broken on AppImage because he hates it and wants to fulfil his narrative that Wayland is a broken mess that won’t ever work, while Flatpak developers work hard on sandboxing and security and granular permission systems.
It is very unfortunate. It’s fine to point out problems, but then when you become part of the problem, that’s not amazing.
He’s had the same meltdown with fuse2 being deprecated in favor of fuse3 which, guess what, also broke AppImage and we had a huge rant for that too.
Flatpak has a better chance of being forward compatible for the foreseeable future. Linux generally isn’t a very ABI/API compatible platform because for the most part you’re expected to be able to patch and recompile whatever you might want.
Well, for the tech illerterate. Arch is pretty simple and excellent to manage as everything is simple in the system together with the Arch Wiki.
But this is only for those who tinker and manage their systems or want to learn more about the Linux system. Endeavour is better for the normal user who doesn’t want to break their head. Its definetly not the KISS 1. Which you mentioned
Try testdisk. It can copy files from damaged filesystem without touching it. But only if you are lucky enough and the filesystem is not so heavily damaged that testdisk will be unable to find it.
Assuming I’m using it correctly, it doesn’t seem to be working for me. It sees the partitions but then it says that they can’t be recovered. But it’s weird because it’s for some reason saying that there is two unreadable partitions called “ms data”, which unless it’s referring to some partitions that were deleted when I install Ubuntu, I have no idea what they are supposed to be.
I have had great results with testdisk. At one point my dad’s external hard drive was so messed up that a local IT company couldn’t fix it. Mind you all our family and vacation pictures where on there, so it was kind of important. I think it took me a couple of hours, but with testdisk I was able to recover everything
exFAT filesystem is what you need, and FAT32 is what you have. Windows (natively) and Linux (via Terminal) both allow to format it and change filesystem. You can use GParted GUI on Linux for ease.
MacOS also supports exfat out of the box. So do most Android phones, TVs, consoles, etc.
It’s only viable choice for cross-platform use, AFAIK. Not the best fs out there by any means but I still use it on my all my USBs because I need them to work everywhere.
It is one of the best, while also being the most viable for cross platform use. While journaling types and the more niche Linux filesystems are better, they are quite exclusive. My external HDD and USB sticks are formatted as exFAT and it helps when I use them across both Linux and Windows on my computer.
It’s basically an extra layer of polish to make Debian as user-friendly as can be, which while being very pleasant to work with for experienced users, is likely to be particularly appreciated by those who are not particularly technically inclined. As an example, the Mint Software Store is pretty much unmatched as a stable, and extremely user friendly way to manage and install software, with reviews, Flathub integration, screenshots, etc. Where as on standard Debian, the GUI package manager would likely be Aptitude, which is quite a daunting piece of software for the uninitiated.
You could make a vanilla Debian install as user friendly as Mint, but you’d already have to have the skill to get it to that state, where as Mint is ready out of the box.
LMDE essentially is Debian (uses the Debian repos for most of its installed packages), with some Mint packages included on top via the Mint repositories that are also added. Mint actually has some pretty neat graphical utilities and has Flathub configured to work by default with the Software Center.
The real benefit though is if you enjoy using the Cinnamon DE. The latest Cinnamon version is kept up-to-date in LMDE as the Mint team backport it. The Cinnamon version in Debian 12 is fixed and will not get major version updates until the next version of Debian.
As a Debian user myself, I enjoy Mint when I wish to use Debian on the desktop. I only use core Debian for servers.
Thanks for the good explanation, makes sense.
I’ve been using Debian for both servers and desktop for some while, and tbh getting DE updates earlier would be nice without going unstable - but not nice enough to start tinkering around and potentially compromising the stability so I get it
Never tried regular Arch after trying Black Arch, so not sure if they’re the same feel, but after realizing the work it would take just to be given the capability to resize windows in the UI instead of just coming with drag and resize out of the box, Black Arch was a huge no go for me… Which kept me from wanting to touch regular Arch, lol. That being said, I go nope to Ubuntu the most. Gentoo is my favorite and is what my server has been running for the past decade without any kind of issue, but for laptop and daily use, I use Mint. Been on that one for about a decade now too… Used to use Peppermint (that still a thing?) and Suse the most before those.
I find this reply kind of confusing, you’re comfortable with Gentoo on a server but installing a DE with pacman was too much? Black arch slim comes with xfce, that should definitely allow you to resize windows lol.
My comment on arch is just related to the use of black arch for a regular desktop or laptop machine, not my server (no desktop environment for the server). Was mostly trying it to compare it with Kali, actually.
Black arch does come with xfce by default indeed, but resizing windows isn’t available right away. At least it wasn’t when I tried it a couple of years ago. It required changing a bunch of configurations manually for whatever reason.
Oh I see… I haven’t used black arch personally, that seems so strange they’d go out of their way to disable that. For whatever is worth vanilla Arch + Xfce + i3 has been super great for my desktop, really brought new life to the hardware
Fellow NixOS traveller. I used Nix for work and never saw the appeal of a whole OA built around it but when I saw a tutorial with the declarative config I was instantly sold.
State governments usually are required to place all of their computers up for sale through surplus. (Hard drives usually removed and destroyed). I have been through that process at a State College and a University. They aren’t just thrown away. I imagine there is a similar process for federal computer.
Yeah, when access to raspberry pi’s and such was none existant I knew a few people who would pick up old Optiplex computers and such to use as media servers and such. Old dells used to be very reliable. Throw whatever distro on there gui or not, and the shitty graphics cards wouldn’t matter much
Literally just talked to my mother-in-law who was talking about throwing out her laptop because Windows 10 is losing support and she can’t upgrade to Windows 11.
It would probably run linux perfectly.
But I would never put linux on it. I am not doing tech support for my MIL who just admitted to me that she “locked down her machine because she fixed the registry issues windows has and turned on ipv6 on her router” and alluded to changing other settings but she cant understand why her “wifi keeps dropping out” and thinks its because the neighbors installed a ring doorbell.
A lot of businesses. I’ve stocked an entire network lab out of waste bins from buildings with tech companies in them. Laptops, monitors, network gear, cabling. I once scored a whole box of 100W USB-C chargers.
linux
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.