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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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What's the best way to restore your desktop environment after install? (self.linux)

submitted 1 year ago by swordsmanluke to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've been dual-booting since the early-oughts, but I'm only just now preparing to delete my Windows partition for good.

What with all the repartitioning in my future, I figure it's a good time to just make a clean start - reinstall from scratch. ...but I have about a decade's worth of tools and dotfile tweaks accumulated, including things like updates to xorg.conf to support my old (but awesome) mouse.

So... What's your favored toolset to get your machine back to the way you like it?

I've done this all manually many a time, backing up my home dir, writing scripts to install software, copy important config files into place, etc.

How do you like to go about reinstalling your programs, restoring .dotfiles and config?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use chezmoi for tracking dotfiles and used to use a fancy Ansible setup. Now, I just occasionally backup a list of explicitly installed packages and track the major changes made to the system in a simple Markdown file.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

@andybug
I've been working on using Guix. Theoretically, I love the idea, but there's definitely some learning curve.
@swordsmanluke