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On the future of free long term support for Linux distributions
(utcc.utoronto.ca)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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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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And it's about flippin time. Despite predating app stores by decades, the Linux package systems have been surprisingly conservative in their approach.
The outdated and hardcoded file hierarchy system combined with the rigid package file management systems have ossified to a ridiculous degree.
It's actually telling that Linux packaging systems had to be circumvented with third party approaches like snap, flatpak, appimage etc. — because for the longest time they couldn't handle stuff like having two versions of the same package installed at the same time, or solving old dependencies, or system downgrades, or recovery etc.
Linux had advanced stuff like overlayfs 20 years ago but did not use any of it for packages. But we have 20 different solutions for init.
Like everything, it's a trade off. Windows allows different versions of the same libraries, but at the cost of an ever growing WinSXS folder and slow updates