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Bluefin Dakota Alpha 1 | Bluefin
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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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Not sure how I feel about this "distroless" pattern. It's interesting to be able to get components directly from upstreams from like Gnome, but it makes certain tasks more difficult.
The lack of any distro packages to fall back on when flatpak, distrobox, appimages, and brew fails is simply annoying. I've experienced this multiple times.
While I love Fedora Atomic and atomic distros in general, I constantly feel like they do not think things through. They made the system harder to break, but with severely limited (if you use them the way you're encouraged to, like no layering). They then address these gaps one by one with more and more solutions that are imperfect and that do not fit all needs.
At least with Fedora Atomic (and containerfiles with bootc stuff), I can get a robust system, seamless OS upgrades, and install any packages that do not work well as flatpaks/distrobox/appimages.
I foresee a future in which (so-called) sysexts will be used heavily to address the resulting gaping hole. Unfortunately, it's not perfect either...
Though, I have to say that I find it quite hilarious to see how many alternative package managers are required to replace traditional package managers.
That's my gripe with Atomic distros. I feel like they don't take the time to think things through and throw together. Instead, they throw together a new thing to address the shortcomings of the previous five things.
Love them or hate them, it feels like the only player sticking to their guns is Canonical with snap. It's the only package manager that really does it all: GUI, CLI, IDEs, server, daemons, even the kernel and GRUB. Honestly, when the permission prompting is stable, I might be tempted to give it another chance.
I wonder if they'll one day just alias a bunch of stuff, kinda like what Ubuntu has done with forcing Snap down people's throats. So, like:
sudo dnf install bottlesactually doingflatpak install bottlessudo dnf install tldractually doingbrew install tldrI don't think it's necessarily bad as long as it's very transparent on what it actually does (and why). And..., offers choice where applicable*.
Or..., like, introduce a new package manager that basically functions as a front-end. Would that ((and/)or the earlier alias-thing) be worse than sticking to the development of a single package manager until it does all (à la Snap)?