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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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Seeing more projects omitting installation instructions for debian/ubuntu. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I know there are ways to install software outside of aptitude on debian/ubuntu, (add repo, or build, or download binary, or possibly flatpak/snap/etc).

But being able to download *.deb files was one of the nicest aspect of using a debian based distros and now I'm seeing more and more projects include all distros except deb files.

Someone correct me but I vaguely recall that distributing debs is no longer recommended by debian itself?

Am I wrong, and have I only co-incidentally stumbled on projects that don't distribute debs?
I am right and this seems like a mis-step, removing one of the most beginner friendly features that helped propagate debian based distros?

Flamesuit on.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, this became so bad in the last five years or so.

Just bought a digital drawing tablet from a manufacturer who claim their products have Linux support. Plugged it in and went to their download lage. Of course, there would not be a link to their GitHub project and instead I got a .deb and a .rpm, which is totally useless to me because my system is neither Debian/Ubuntu nor even glibc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

rpm2targz should solve the first half of that problem (debs can be unpacked without their package manager too, but I forget the method). As for the glibc part, crossing your fingers and hoping it will work with musl or whatever anyway seems like the most useful course of action, alas.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They're (usually) packaged with the slightly unusual ar format - ar x yourpackage.deb should give you the underlying tar files that would be installed, and then tar xf yourpackage.tar. Most archive managers will let you open them up like any other archive though - Gnome's certainly does - if that's easier for you.