It’s nice to use though. I recently set up 2 VMs to act as Docker servers, one of which was Alpine (the other NixOS, as a learning project). It’s dead simple to set up and use. I was pleasantly surprised at how little I had to get used to considering musl + lack of systemd.
Recently switched to using Flatpaks instead of random .debs for a number of apps on my system. /var/lib/flatpak takes up 7GiB, which honestly isn’t that much (even though it’s like quarter of the OS size), given that’s the software I use most of the time.
Was skeptical at first about Flatpaks, but SteamOS showed me that is great at just giving OS developers access to a fully populated app store with minimal work.
Honestly, nowadays I’d say “ability to install flatpaks” should be the criteria on which we decide whether an OS is really “linux” or not (that is, SteamOS is, but Android isn’t).
Edit: Okay. I said something stupid here, my bad. What I was trying to get at is the distinction between Android, etc. and “Desktop” Linuxes like traditional distros, Chromebooks and the Steam Deck. Even though it technically runs Linux, it’s hard to argue that developers for Android are really writing apps that work on “Linux”. Wheras if someone releases a Flatpak version of their app because they think the Steam deck is cool, it works on other distros “for free”.
Yup, Flatpaks are indeed great. Isolation, modern versions, no weird dependencies.
I have to manage a Debian PC fleet and I am too stupid for Ansible, so they all just got cleaned up extremely, all that bloat gone, apps replaced with flatpaks and now the system has like ⅓ the packages. Automatic updates then, VirtualBox is the only stupid thing with their kmod and all, but Virtmanager is also already on there.
Not all apps can be flatpaks, for example virt-manager, gnome-boxes can but its really restricted then.
But keeping the system slim just makes so much sense, its like removing this distro randomness which I am sure is needed for Linux to get their shit together and stop doing the same work at 10 different places.
This is on an M.2 with a i7-10870H and a 3080M. I installed Windows some days ago on my main Desktop and didn’t have to deal with any of that. It must be a new “feature”.
When I had to reinstall Windows 11 on a laptop at work with an 11th Gen i7 it took a good 30+ minutes of it faffing about between finishing the setup wizard and reaching the deskfop and when I to installed PopOS on a much older laptop with a 6th Gen i7 it took less than 5 minutes to perform the install
Oldest developer trick in the book. Program in a bunch of useless delays everywhere. On the next few updates, slowly remove them and say you are "improving" the system.
Tbh, I don’t really get the hate that Ubuntu gets.
I mean, I do understand that people don’t like some of the decisions made with Ubuntu (e.g. snap), but especially for people who don’t use an OS for the sake of using that OS and just want to use their PC to get stuff done, Ubuntu/Kubuntu are quite good.
You have a mostly consistent UI that can do most important configs without touching CLI. Manuals and simple guides are easy to find, even in other languages than English (which is important for quite a big number of people outside the US).
And contrary to some other, smaller distros, Ubuntu isn’t run by just 1-2 people and you can trust in it still existing in 10 years. (Obviously, this is true for many other distros, but some quite widly used distros are run just by a tiny team of hobbyists)
I mean, I’d get the reaction if someone claimed they are Linux users because they use Android (though with enough knowledge you can also get a full Linux distro running on Android in chroot).
“Use Snaps”
“No” (installs .deb)
“Fuck you, use Snaps”
(The Snap Store is a proprietary closed-source black-box that updates your snaps without asking and every part of this statement was a deliberate planned feature by Canonical)
I looked into it. You’re right.
They implemented the ability to permanently hold all automatic updates.
After five years of debate during which they consistently claimed that the whole point of Snaps is that developers can push whatever, whenever.
I mentioned this in the comment you answered to. But as I said, this might be an issue for people that use Linux because they really hate anything that isn’t GPL, but 97% of the people on this planet care more about whether something is simple to use than what license it uses, as evidenced by the market share of Windows, Android, Chromebooks and Apple products.
Wouldn’t it be better to get some of them to use Ubuntu with snaps than to stay on their proprietary platforms, because packet management sucks and conflicts are basically impossible to solve for someone who’s not a software developer?
Linus swore that Bitkeeper wouldn’t alter the agreement further, like a mad egotistical movie villain.
Canonical is very clearly funneling their userbase towards a Snap-only environment (something that already exists as an option).
As the sole keyholders, and as a for-profit business, what is the next step?
Is it to maintain a wealth of options, even when that cuts into profit margins? What about when those options are competing products (think Gnome and KDE back in the Unity days)?
These things just do not make sense from a business perspective, and they will not be necessary once their userbase is locked into the Snap walled garden.
As to your point about licenses and market share, default non-options and limited choices aren’t compatible with conversations about choice.
I really don’t like that sentiment though. Software development isn’t for free just because you slap GPL on it. These devs need to be paid somehow if they are supposed to do more than 3h/week.
You can also see the same thing in the Linux kernel. Many Kernel devs are employed by Microsoft, Google, the NSA and many other commercial entities.
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