this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
84 points (97.7% liked)
Linux
48209 readers
896 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's more about trust, than security. When you use a specific distro, you only have to trust the distro packagers. These packages are reviewed by multiple persons, tested thoroughly and (usually) built in a reproductible way. The packagers are usually different from the developers, so they can also review the code itself and eventually patch issues if needed to be in line with the distro's ideology.
With flatpak, snap and friends, anyone is a potential packager, so for each software you gotta trust this single entity, which is usually the developer itself.