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RemixOS – Android for the desktop

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Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#21

Post by api »

nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Most Linux distros have a mothership in the form of the package repositories and the signing keys thereof. Doing without would require a more decentralized system that would be harder to engineer, unless you want to go back to the days when all software updates were piecemeal and manual.

I would actually say that Linux distributions pioneered the app store concept via "yum install" and "apt-get" and such. Linux is certainly the first OS where I can remember seeing a centralized app repository you could pull from with a single command.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#23

Post by legulere »

nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

> I would prefer less app-ification, more package management.

I would argue for the opposite: One problem with linux is that you can't run untrusted software without it getting the same access as the user. That's exactly what the appification is.

I see package managers as a source of some problems of linux: Package maintainers are a unneeded middleman between the writers of the software and you, package managers interact with the whole system, scattering files around the whole filesystem and running scripts as root when installing/uninstalling packages. Applications being files/folders that can be installed/uninstalled with cp/rm seems way more unixy to me.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#24

Post by nextos »

Someone1234 wrote: post #20
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

I cannot help but wonder if "apps" aren't going to eventually replace package managers. That's certainly what Docker-like containers try to do. It might sound crazy when you consider some of the services typically installed with a package manager but ultimately there's no reason why an "app" cannot run in root, many root packages aren't actually installing drivers, they're only root for historical reasons (e.g. being…

I'm certain containers will end up replacing package managers. This idea is being pushed by the systemd guys.

I think its a step backwards, as you loose tight control over dependencies. E.g., in case of a security issue, one cannot easily patch all containers if they are blackboxes.

IMHO, the right tool for this is an improved package manager such as Nix or Guix (which incidentally also support containers in their own way). Perhaps the future should be a Nix-like package manager for dependency management, and container-ization for security and resource limits.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#25

Post by nextos »

api wrote: post #21
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Most Linux distros have a mothership in the form of the package repositories and the signing keys thereof. Doing without would require a more decentralized system that would be harder to engineer, unless you want to go back to the days when all software updates were piecemeal and manual. I would actually say that Linux distributions pioneered the app store concept via "yum install" and "apt-get" and such. Linux is ce…

Oh, I meant no deep embedding of Google services, like in Cyanogenmod.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#26

Post by dharma1 »

nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Would be nice to be able to run Android apps in normal Linux distros

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#28

Post by marssaxman »

legulere wrote: post #23
nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

> I would prefer less app-ification, more package management. I would argue for the opposite: One problem with linux is that you can't run untrusted software without it getting the same access as the user. That's exactly what the appification is. I see package managers as a source of some problems of linux: Package maintainers are a unneeded middleman between the writers of the software and you, package managers inte…

I've never liked the traditional unix way of managing a filesystem either; GoboLinux had the right idea.

Re: RemixOS – Android for the desktop

#29

Post by voltagex_ »

nextos wrote: post #15

As a hardcore Linux user, I'm really torn about Android. On the one hand, it has created a nice software ecosystem by pushing a consistent set of APIs. Linux desktop applications were never remarkable except for a few ones. I think fragmentation into a myriad of frameworks led to this. The only 2 X11 applications I use are firefox and zathura. On the other hand, too much stuff has been redone in Android. It's too for…

Every year I go look where Maemo/Meego/Mer/Tizen (whatever it's been rebranded as) got up to. The N900 remains the greatest phone I ever owned.

I had high hopes for Jolla but I doubt they're really out of their financial troubles - they owe me a very expensive tablet, currently. By the time it's delivered it will be obsolete.

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