I recently ran across SpiralLinux - GitHub page, and found the concept of how the maintainer is packaging it very cool.
The maintainer has been maintaining Gecko Linux for a while now - it has the same underlying concept.
The gist is - you're basically installing Debian, but with customizations that the maintainer(s) thought would be very helpful. Basically - better out of the box experience for new users, but also less work to do even for experienced users, and it comes with different download flavors - Gnome, Plasma, XFCE, Mate, etc.
Bit more detail by the maintainer in this Reddit comment:
Exactly. It's like I went over to your house and installed and configured Debian on your computer, and then you kicked me out of your house as soon as I finished. ;-) The installed system no longer has any connection whatsoever with me or the SpiralLinux project, which is good because you wouldn't want your entire system to depend on a random single developer maintaining it.
(original Reddit comment has more details).
I thought this was pretty cool. I'm still trying to read up online on trying to find how the package lists are maintained, etc., and I might be interested in contributing if I'm able to in the future.
Just wanted to share!
Do you consider SpiralLinux something I could throw on my grandma's computer and she will be fine for the next 5 years? (when Bookworm runs out of updates)
Will updates be installed automatically or will the potential user have to know a little bit what they are doing?
What about upgrades? Once the current Debian release is EOL, how easy will it be to jump to the next one?
Thanks for your efforts!
Hi there, yes, this is exactly the intended use case. For users that would be confused by updates and changes, and also for experienced users that simply need to get work done on a reliable low-maintenance system that always works the same way.
No automatic updates, I recommend doing this every once in a while:
https://github.com/SpiralLinux/SpiralLinux-project/wiki#updates-within-a-debian-stable-release-lifecycle
I've never used it myself, but Debian does offer a daemon for automatic installation of updates, so that might be an option to consider for grandma's installation. But I'm not too paranoid about applying updates on a Linux system that is behind a standard broadband router running NAT and a firewall; in practice personal home Linux systems like that just aren't being compromised. Frankly the biggest danger by far for grandma would be social engineering attacks and scam call centers.
It's pretty easy and very reliable in my experience and from what SpiralLinux 11 users have commented about their upgrade to Debian 12. This is the recommended method:
https://github.com/SpiralLinux/SpiralLinux-project/wiki#upgrading-to-a-major-new-debian-stable-release
I completely missed the Wiki 🤦♂️. Sorry for the redundant questions.
I am actually not that much concerned with general OS updates - as you say, those systems are not heavily used and more or less isolated. BUT they are still used for web browsing. So the browser should be patched as good as possible.
I'll give SpiralLinux a try in a VM to get a feeling for it. Maybe paired with the automatic update daemon I could then forget about the PC(s) in question for the next few years until a major version change is necessary (which then hopefully can be done remote as per your Wiki page).
Another option might be to uninstall the DEB version of Firefox and install a browser from Flathub, and configure Gnome Software or KDE Discover to automatically download and install updates for Flatpaks.
Uh, clever idea. Thanks!