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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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Fitting Everything Together - Lennart Poettering explains where he personally thinks OS development with Linux should go (0pointer.net)

submitted 2 years ago by cypherpunks@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I think the focus must be on an image-based design rather than a package-based one. For robustness and security it is essential to operate with reproducible, immutable images that describe the OS or large parts of it in full, rather than operating always with fine-grained RPM/dpkg style packages. That's not to say that packages are not relevant (I actually think they matter a lot!), but I think they should be less of a tool for deploying code but more one of building the objects to deploy.

How is this different from any linux distro with docker installed on it?

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Its the opposite. What he is talking about is images based OS, like Ubuntu Touch is doing it, also the Steam Deck and stuff like CoreOS. I think Android and ChromeOS are also doing that. Its not a bad idea in general.

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Can you explain what image based OS means?

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 years ago

The core operating system is a single read-only file (ROM, as in custom ROM on Android) and all the user files and customizations are on a different partition or such. Since the core system is fixed you can just swap it with a newer ROM when updating (and also go back to the old one if the update fails somehow.).

[–] brombek@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There is something sinister about his vision. I think it is fine for server OS to all be identical (docker is that already) - probably what you want, although less flexible. But for personal computing... that makes it very impersonal, to force bit-to-bit conformance on people.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 years ago

This is not what this is about. You can customize it without problem, see Steam Deck. Its about the core system files being read only and easy to upgrade.