this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Linux

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What's so special about it? Isn't it just a repository? Or am I missing something? If it's just a repo, Ubuntu has PPAs and everyone and their mother is creating PPAs.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

PPAs and the AUR are very different. Where as PPAs contain prebuilt .deb packages, the AUR hosts PkgBuild scripts that typically pull from a git repo and compile a program for you.

I understand the confusion though, because they accomplish the same goal of installing software that is not in the main repos, but in different ways.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's a single, central, community space for build plans, which are extremely easy for anyone to create and submit.

Edit: And easier to audit than prebuilt packages