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How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

cloud.google.com

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Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#91

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

happymellon wrote: post #74
HyperSane wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSL2 works really well.

Unlikely to work in any corporate environment that I've witnessed. This is why so many devs I know moved to Mac's. Not because Mac's are necessary that great, who cares about battery life when it just sits on a desk, but because it's the closest you can get to Linux in a corporate environment. I would take native Linux on an ThinkPad as first option, but denied that I would go for Mac over Windows. I don't find WSL f…

Mac's are closer to BSD than Linux and suck for Linux oriented development. Brew is more ductape than a solution and you basically need to replace all GNU tools since they are horrible out of date.

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#92

Post by [deleted] »

walrus01 wrote: post #65

regular debian testing, unless you are doing something really esoteric, is really quite stable for desktop use. such as you might get if you installed the basic barebones debian CLI setup totaling about 1GB disk space occupied and then used apt to install xorg and xfce4 or any other window manager. debian-stable is extremely conservative in packages and stuff is often several years behind.

[deleted]

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#94

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

HyperSane wrote: post #51
akdor1154 wrote: post #46

Jesus.. here i am in my BigCorp being disallowed to dev with Linux because too much mandated corporate crapware doesn't work. I dream of the day my employer provides an in-house distro for me.

WSL2 works really well.

I only use WSL2 at work. Got my full blown NixOS with systems and all in it.

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#95

Post by SuperSandro2000 »

uncletaco wrote: post #52
pbamotra wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article, > Rolling releases with Linux distributions today are getting more common (Arch Linux, NixOS).

NixOS users are socialized to not bother reading

Btw I am using NixOS

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#96

Post by fulafel »

walrus01 wrote: post #65

regular debian testing, unless you are doing something really esoteric, is really quite stable for desktop use. such as you might get if you installed the basic barebones debian CLI setup totaling about 1GB disk space occupied and then used apt to install xorg and xfce4 or any other window manager. debian-stable is extremely conservative in packages and stuff is often several years behind.

What about security updates? They might come slowly to unstable (since security team doesn't concern themselves with unstable) and might be held up arbitrarily long before trickling down to testing, no?

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#98

Post by funcDropShadow »

baby wrote: post #83

Interesting post! I’ve been thinking about trying Linux with a rolling distrib. They mention NixOS, do people here have an opinion on that one?

I am not sure I would call NixOs a rolling release distribution. It has releases every 6 month like Ubuntu, but it does not have LTS releases. And due to the relatively small community only the latest release is supported. I am doing software development on a desktop workstation, that followed all releases since the start of 2018. And overall it has been rock solid. If an update, either a new release or a config change of mine, breaks something important, I reboot with the previous setup, and I can continue to work until I have time to investigate what is going on. I've used that perhaps 5 times since 2018. But when I used it, it was absolutely critical.

But expect a steep learning curve.

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#99

Post by paskozdilar »

baby wrote: post #84
raffraffraff wrote: post #71

Glad to see that they're planning on contributing more to the upstream. But considering the size and budget of Google, and the amount of free work they're getting from the Debian community, it would be utterly irresponsible not to . Not blaming the team that's doing this good work though - I'm sure they're working hard enough as it is.

Open source = no strings attached. I don’t get the shaming of big users of open source. (And if we really want to get there: chrome, android, angular, etc.)

Technically, you are right. Free software provides freedom for every user to use the code in any way they want, and to distribute their changes to others at their own will - including never.

However, I very much understand the sentiment - the same companies that keep all their code closed and mistreat their users with proprietary software use free software so they can make more proprietary software. It is antithetical to the spirit of free software. It is understandable why most hackers are bitter about it.

GPL (and AGPL) license was created to prevent such scenarios, but some people disagree with the rules of GPL - calling them "restrictions of freedom" - and use more permissive licenses instead, which allows big companies to do whatever they want with the software, including making it proprietary.

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