This is interesting to me for my use case scenario, specifically SteamOS.
What I’m trying to do is run an emulated Everquest server (lookup EQEmu). The community there has several methods of installation of the server, Windows, Linux, and Docker. The hurdle to overcome is the immutable file system, specifically when it comes to the database (MariaDB). I think I may have found a work around via Linux brew and installing MariaDB through that (which I’ve done, I just have to make the final connection). However the Docker setup, when running it on a separate distro is stupid easy. If they make this a Flatpak, it can potentially be the solution I’m looking for.
Really the end goal is creating a Single player Everquest. I have a dual boot with it operating via Windows, but would much prefer to have it on the SteamOS side of the house.
Docker Desktop ≠ Docker Engine, and I think what you (and several in this thread) are thinking is actually Docker Engine. Docker Desktop ultimately includes a Docker Engine inside, but it does not appear you need that virtual machine (e.g. running non-Linux code). See: docs.docker.com/desktop/faqs/linuxfaqs/#what-is-t…
Docker Desktop is based on KVM, which already works with Flatpak. So this is not something new. For example, GNOME Boxes is available as Flatpak and provides a way to run KVM guests in SteamOS.
Starting with version 3.5 (the current stable) SteamOS already includes Podman with the default installation. And running the daemon-y Docker Engine “bare metal” is not going to be any easier with the immutable filesystem. While Docker Desktop solves this by using KVM, it adds another layer with performance loss, vs. just running Podman containers.
So what you want is already available, and no Docker Desktop is actually needed.
But so if Docker Desktop does include Docker Engine, does that mean I wiill now be able to run Docker (with a some performance loss) simply by installing a Flatpak, i.e. I won’t even need to touch the CLI?
Yes. If you mean “CLI” as for e.g. pacman install, it is a GUI (Electron) application, so I expect will install straight from e.g. KDE Discover and then run without you touching the shell.
Installing podman-compose with the immutable filesystem is fairly straight forward, since it is just a single Python file (github.com/containers/…/podman_compose.py), which you can basically install anywhere in your path. You can also first bootstrap pip (python3 get-pip.py --user with get-pip.py from github.com/pypa/get-pip) and then do pip3 install --user podman-compose.
Could be a defective library that’s used by many apps. Glibc, etc. That said, if something like this is that broken, others should be complaining about it too.
I was running CentOS then migrated to Rocky. It handles various VMs and containers great and has been trouble free for years. 10 core Haswell-era Xeon with 64 GB RAM and a lot of ZFS storage.
I moved from Arch to Fedora on my desktop/laptop as well. Really helps my mental state not keeping up with the different distro-specific knowledge between hosts.
Did you get bored of dealing with packages dependencies and always relying on AUR when you wanted to download a corpo software? I’m planning to do the Arch to Fedora pill too tbf.
Somewhat but it was more driven on the server-side decision. I wanted something that I could set and forget, that didn’t have a ton of updates but prioritized stability/security patches.
Of course, speaking of packages I do regularly use rpmfusion and epel for the extra stuff the normal repos don’t have, but I understand why.
Also being a heavy user of KVM, PCIe and GPU passthrough I found the experience easier and less likely to break between updates. A lot of Red Hat devs work on these subsystems so I assume it’s better QA’d.
I went with Pop!_OS because it was one of the least Windows-like DEs. Which is what I wanted after getting so damn sick of their garbage. Kinda macOS though with the dock and all. I dig it.
Oh wow! This is excellent news! I hope they’ll also provide other privacy/security related features like Heads, the removal of the camera and/or microphone modules, pre-installed privacy screen, tamper-evident screws and packaging.
Honestly, I don’t know if that’s the case; I always got scared whenever I saw the prerequisites for Heads in combination with the strict list of supported hardware. FWIW, the NV41 that’s used for enabling Heads on NovaCustom’s device is included in the short list of supported hardware for Heads, while -unfortunately- the same doesn’t apply to the StarBook. I would love to be proven wrong though!
Linux mint I would say its the one that tends to have better support in a large amount of hardware and it was the first one that I was able to stick with
Very intrigued by OpenSUSE as an alternative to Fedora. How do you think the two stack up against each other? Is it a noticeable leap switching between them?
please please please avoid an LTS (long term support) distro for desktop use, especially if gaming. this includes Linux mint which is based on Ubuntu LTS. the packages are painfully old and cause problems playing the latest games, particularly where they don’t work out of the box with lutris/proton/wine etc. LTS is great for servers and workstations but not end users
experienced users can make any distro work including LTS but it’s extra overhead for new folks
It’s not about Laptop vs worksation. It’s about how new is the Hardware compared to the Linux Kernel shipping with the LTS distribution. If your hardware is older than the kernel, you will most likely not have any problems. For example, let’s say you use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which ships with Kernel 5.17 releaed in may 2022, if your computer is made of parts released in 2021, no problem.
OP, this is terrible advice. Do not follow! Unless you run into a problem with Ubuntu LTS or distro based on it that you and the community cannot solve and it’s due to the LTS, stick with LTS. The vast majority of users are on LTS which is why there are tested solutions for most common problems you might run into. LTS releases last for many years so once you solve a problem, it’s likely you won’t have to solve it again for a long time, unless you decide to make your life more interesting by upgrading or changing the OS. Non-LTS releases last for 9 months or so, then you’re thrust onto a new set of changes and bugs that may or may not hit you, with much fewer comrades to test them and find solutions for. As a new user, if you’re going with Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based OS, stick to LTS. You’ll have enough hurdles to cross getting acquainted with the OS itself.
my lug tries to help people trying to run lutris on old LTS versions and for one example we ended up having to tell them to use some .deb for lutris since ubuntu shipped a broken lutris version for a year or whatever users should always be able to depend on their package manager alone instead of side loading content. even had instances of their version of wget or curl being incompatible with winetricks and gitlab and githubs apis
Being able to always rely on the package manager alone, in other words on the built-in repos alone, has never been achievable on a stable system. You have to throw stability out of the window to allow for that to happen. There are huge downsides to that, especially for new users who have no clue how to isolate and work around defects. That’s why sideloading content via third party repos or individual debs has always been a part of the reality of Debian-based OSes. As a result, most open source communities and proprietary vendors provide one or the other.
Everyone has different opinions. In the end the different versions, or distributions, are basically the same.
It starts with the Linux vernal, that as far as I know, handles communication with the hardware, and things like directories, storage, users, permissions. On top of that, every distribution creator puts a destropenvioment, like gnome or KDE (plasma?). Gnome is kinda like Mac is, KDE can be what ever you want, very customizable.
Than there is the package manager. Fedora for example uses yum or dnf (dnf is the new version I think) and Ubuntu uses apt. The package manager is like your app store, that you access over the command line. It is managed by the owners and ist mostly safe to download anything. (Installing Spotify would by ‘sudo apt/dnf install spotify’. So pretty easy to use.
On top of that the distribution has preinstalled programs, like the browser, writing tools, and some useful apps
That is basically the only difference between distros. You can even get different spins of a distro. If you like fedora, get it with the KDE desktro envioment. It’s all the same basically.
So put something on a usb drive and boot from that, try it out for a few minutes and than look at others. There are also websites that allow you to boot into different distros.
If you like something, just install it, maybe as a Dualboot first next to windows (best is on a different drive) and just try it out. If you don’t like it, just jump to another one.
Linux can be a little bit pain sometimes, but in my opinion it’s worth to invest the time. Have fun!
linux
Top
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.