this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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Linux

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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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The immutable state of distros like fedora silerblue and opensuse microos leads to the use of distrobox.

I defaulted to a fedora image but there must be better images for the job. What do you suggest to use if you just want to install pdflatex, pandoc, R, julia, python, ffmpeg, etc. Just the usual tools you need for the tasks everyday

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd recommend debian - the universal operating system.

If your software does not exist for debian, your software does not exist. (Ubuntu is just debian with extra corpo flavour)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's been a while since I've used pure debian, but historically I've used Ubuntu because debian made it more difficult to install "non-free" software. Has this changed?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes, you just have to change a file, apt update and you're good to go. https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#Using__a_text_editor (you probably want to add contrib, non-free and non-free-firmware)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

One year ago I treated how long it takes to get Gimp to install on various distros in distrobox:

Results:

zypper@Tumbleweed: 3 minutes, 22 seconds

apt@Ubuntu 22.04: 1 minute 26 seconds

dnf@Fedora: 1 minute 2 seconds

pacman@arch: 0 minutes 21 seconds

But that's just installation speed. It simply shows that there are quite big differences depending on use case.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

For everyday tasks, I think a Fedora distrobox works fine, but you would have to upgrade it eventually and I admit I'm not sure how you do that under distrobox. Still, I initially used it and still have a Fedora distrobox I use for doing stuff for my job, as well as one I use for running a game modding program that requires Java, and they both work fine.

I've also had success with a Debian distrobox, which I used to compile Render96ex. Debian is pretty universal, so it's much easier to follow compile instructions using it than a Fedora distrobox ^^'

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago