this post was submitted on 16 Oct 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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Why are people still using anything other than Debian and Redhat tho?
Arch and its derivatives (and once, NixOS) are the only distros that provide me with the range of software I need. But guess what? NixOS has some issues if you don't want to go deep into it, and for me they mostly stemmed from the immutability of it. And Arch and derivatives are all rolling release, when I don't want a rolling release. I want a machine I can keep running for 10-15 days or more and not have to bother with the idea of updates.
"for me they mostly stemmed from the immutability of it" 😱 😱 someone saying that immutably OSes are crap. I can't believe what I'm reading 😂 Related discussion: https://lemmy.world/comment/4571828
For some things, they suck. Even NixOS, with its incredible flexibility compared to something like Silverblue, sucks for some things. For example, a Linux-only piece of software I need for University. The supported way to install it, is to download the archive from the university website and unpack it into your root directory, where it will install itself and its dependencies under /usr. You can't exactly do that on an Immutable distro. And I tried to make it work locally, but then in the end, after it didn't, I just gave up.
I just like the rolling release/quick updates of Endeavour(Arch) and SUSE Tumbleweed. So those are the ones I pick between for my gaming laptop (both with Btrfs for easy rollback though I've never needed it). For my servers I use Debian and Ubuntu.
Here is the thing, I used to think in the same way you do, but then Flatpak happened and that kind of delivers the best of both worlds on Debian. Rock solid and stable base OS with the latest apps with Flatpak. Bonus feature, doesn't pollute the system.