Patroncast S04E50 - Channel stuff & the next big Linux desktop transition
Added 2024-12-16 11:48:10 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
In this one, I talk about:
00:49 Channel stuff and what's planned for the end of the year
08:21 What is the next big transition for the Linux Desktop
Have a great day, and a great week!
Comments
Yeah, they're a bit bigger (although if you only use Flatpaks for graphical apps, its not really bigger than system libraries + apps themselves). Updates are definitely slower though !
The Linux Experiment
2024-12-17 09:37:06 +0000 UTCOh yeah, Immutable systems will definitely carve a solid niche for themselves, if anything has a shot of coming preinstalled to a computer, it's an immutable distro.
The Linux Experiment
2024-12-17 09:36:07 +0000 UTCWhile I doubt that immutable distros will be the one and only future for the Linux desktop, I can definitely see hardware vendors being interested in immutable systems for certain markets, like for schools for example. Valve is already shipping an immutable distro for their gaming handhelds and Endless Os was a pioneer shipping an immutable distro for the education market and in countries with lower access to tech. Immutable distros just make sense for people who just want to get work done on their devices and who never tinker with the system. Immutable distros also make sense for hardware vendors who want to sell a device that just works and where they can control precisely how their system works and gets updated without having to worry that a customer will fiddle around their system and break it. I've been using atomic Fedora distros for a year now and I think that what will dictate the success of immutable distros and a more mainstream Linux desktop platform in general, is whether or not we will have one and only one universal packaging format that will let software vendors package their apps without having to package it a dozen time for each package format. I think that the Linux desktop needs to converge to a single packaging format, but this is such a touchy topic in the community that I don't see it happening in the next ten years.
UsernamesAreHard
2024-12-16 22:49:56 +0000 UTCGood for you to have a nice break for the holidays, like everyone else. Flatpaks still have a ways to go, but they are getting better. With the more atomic type distros are becoming popular, more effort in packaging systems like FP are important. Size is more of an overblown issue, as it is shared resources. Performance needs to improve as well as theming. They will need to figure out if they want to bring in better CLI capability.
Clint Eschberger
2024-12-16 19:47:25 +0000 UTCA reason for debs or rpms over Flatpaks: size and speed. Whenever I update my Flatpaks, more often than not it also includes updates to system locales and platform bases of various versions, often around 300MB, turning maybe 2 updates into 12 that go one at a time. Native packages zip by, and often have multiple at a time, although maybe this comes down to me not adjusting default update flags. Flatpaks are nice for full GUI apps, but I don't think it's suited for CLI apps or system components.
NotMyName
2024-12-16 12:52:57 +0000 UTC
