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Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

apricityos.com

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Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#71

Post by gosub »

roblabla wrote: post #53
gosub wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

packages are namespaced in a directory for each package/version, like this: /nix/store/b6gvzjyb2pg0kjfwrjmg1vfhh54ad73z-firefox-33.1/ if a package is "installed" in an environment (it could be global, user local or temporary), its files are sym-linked in the "original" position (e.g. /usr/bin/firefox etc etc)

Small nitpick, they aren't symlinked to their original position, but instead to a "profile" (global for instance is in /run/current-system/sw, your local profile is $HOME/.nix-profile). This has several consequences. It means binaries distributed with the expectation of libraries being in their original position (e.g. /usr/lib/libc.so) don't work as is. It also means scripts depending on the presence of /usr/bin/bash…

Yes, you are right.

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#72

Post by jerf »

embik wrote: post #70
compactmani wrote: post #57

This is a project developed by a high school senior. Yes he made rookie choices as have been pointed out here. If you like the direction of the project, contribute! It will help him learn.

I'm really sorry for being overly snarky, but where should one start contributing to this giant mess? It's basically a few packages packaged up in a questionable manner (with license violations[1] in the past), none of which are actually written by the developer himself. He is styling himself and the OS as a professional project (at least that's the vibe I get from the website[2]) and he is actually asking for money[…

I suggest the disclaimer route. Everything on GitHub really ought to have an indication in the README.md about why it is there. A single line saying "I'm just hosting it here and you've got no reason to ever use this" can be very helpful.

(Plus when someone posts your GitHub repo to HN for some random reason, that disclaimer can save you a lot of hassle.)

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#73

Post by gosub »

Svenstaro wrote: post #61
gosub wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

packages are namespaced in a directory for each package/version, like this: /nix/store/b6gvzjyb2pg0kjfwrjmg1vfhh54ad73z-firefox-33.1/ if a package is "installed" in an environment (it could be global, user local or temporary), its files are sym-linked in the "original" position (e.g. /usr/bin/firefox etc etc)

So basically, one could make this compatible with current Arch packages by making packages install into /nix/store/ instead?

I don't know if a mechical/automatic process is possible, but it works for haskell and python packages from Hackage and PyPI.

nix packages are not exactly packages, as in rpm or deb files, they are expressions in a functional language (think build recipes). there is a central repository of recipes on github: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/tree/master/pkgs

but you can make your own, and eventually make a pull request. They are more similar to Arch's PKGBUILDs. Packages in the central repository are constantly built by a continuos built process (http://nixos.org/hydra/), that works both as a binary cache and as a testing system. This is an expression I wrote to install SuperCollider plugins https://gist.github.com/gosub/a42e265ec38d9df203d6 using the Arch PKGBUILD as a reference https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=sc3-p...

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#74

Post by embik »

jerf wrote: post #72
embik wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really sorry for being overly snarky, but where should one start contributing to this giant mess? It's basically a few packages packaged up in a questionable manner (with license violations[1] in the past), none of which are actually written by the developer himself. He is styling himself and the OS as a professional project (at least that's the vibe I get from the website[2]) and he is actually asking for money[…

I suggest the disclaimer route. Everything on GitHub really ought to have an indication in the README.md about why it is there. A single line saying "I'm just hosting it here and you've got no reason to ever use this" can be very helpful. (Plus when someone posts your GitHub repo to HN for some random reason, that disclaimer can save you a lot of hassle.)

To be fair, he not only put up his code on GitHub, he also created a semi-professional looking and analogously worded website. That's not something that is posted to HN by "mistake". It sounds more like a startup than a hobby project:

> We are a Chicago based team of developers, dedicated to creating useful, intuitive software that helps people better integrate digital computing into their daily lives

The GitHub repository also proves it's not "we": https://github.com/agajews/ApricityOS/graphs/contributors

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#75

Post by apatters »

I've had a lot of fun playing around with Arch, and it's taught me a lot about Linux, but it seems to me like the "rolling release, mostly unmodified sources from many third parties" update model is a no-go for anyone other than a very seasoned Linux user or someone with a lot of time on their hands.

Things just break or otherwise don't work far too often.

So, kudos to the guy who put this distro together but without addressing this issue I don't think we're going to see an "easy to use" Arch-based distro any time soon.

I'm definitely speaking just as an onlooker and a novice here as I'm not involved in any open source development, but it feels like the whole Linux community would benefit from more rigorous API versioning and better documentation of interfaces between components. Even with distros that presumably do a lot of QA on their core packages like Fedora or Ubuntu, it feels like stuff breaks a LOT in Linux because of dependencies on the wrong versions of components. It must be a really tough problem.

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#76

Post by jerf »

embik wrote: post #74
jerf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest the disclaimer route. Everything on GitHub really ought to have an indication in the README.md about why it is there. A single line saying "I'm just hosting it here and you've got no reason to ever use this" can be very helpful. (Plus when someone posts your GitHub repo to HN for some random reason, that disclaimer can save you a lot of hassle.)

To be fair, he not only put up his code on GitHub, he also created a semi-professional looking and analogously worded website. That's not something that is posted to HN by "mistake". It sounds more like a startup than a hobby project: > We are a Chicago based team of developers, dedicated to creating useful, intuitive software that helps people better integrate digital computing into their daily lives The GitHub repo…

I was replying directly to embik (edit: which is, err, you, which I did not notice at first). I acknowledge and apologize that my parenthetical could look like I was talking about apricity, but I was not. I'm not taking the defense for apricity. Indeed I have a track record of recommending against young people doing things that will make people who trust them very, very angry when they can't follow through properly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2974770 I just didn't see a point in joining the pile-on, which seems to have covered the bases fairly well.

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#78

Post by burkaman »

jakhead wrote: post #62
mawalu wrote: post #51

[apricity-core] SigLevel = Never Server = http://apricityos.com/apricity-core/ This instructs the package manager (pacman) to load system packages over an unencrypted connection and disables all signature checks. Source: https://github.com/agajews/ApricityOS/blob/master/build/pacm... https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman/Package_signing#...

"This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafrai…

What does this quote mean? And what does it have to do with someone's package manager configuration?

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#79

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

Why would I use this over arch? I mean, If you like pretty pictures, but most Arch users don't: If they did, they'd be using Ubuntu, or Fedora. Arch is all about form over function, It's the beauty of a well crafted piece of engineering, or a wooden table you built yourself, not the beauty of a very elegant interface that somebody else made. So, for now, I'm sticking to i3+urxvt.

Re: Apricity OS: A Beautiful Arch Linux Distro

#80

Post by embik »

jerf wrote: post #76
embik wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, he not only put up his code on GitHub, he also created a semi-professional looking and analogously worded website. That's not something that is posted to HN by "mistake". It sounds more like a startup than a hobby project: > We are a Chicago based team of developers, dedicated to creating useful, intuitive software that helps people better integrate digital computing into their daily lives The GitHub repo…

I was replying directly to embik (edit: which is, err, you, which I did not notice at first). I acknowledge and apologize that my parenthetical could look like I was talking about apricity, but I was not. I'm not taking the defense for apricity. Indeed I have a track record of recommending against young people doing things that will make people who trust them very, very angry when they can't follow through properly:…

And in turn, I have to apologize to you as well because I can see how my comment could be viewed as arguing against you. I didn't think you were defending Apricity at all, I was kinda trying to re-inforce your point by pointing out how he missed to point out important information about his project. Thank you very much for giving advice to novice developers, I very much appreciate it!
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