Patroncast - S04E22 - Would desktops as flatpaks be a good idea?
Added 2024-05-27 10:09:59 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
In this one, I talk about:
01:03 The "Linux problems" survey, a few first data points and insights from it
12:10 Desktop environments, and whether they should ship their desktops directly to the user, maybe in the form of Flatpaks, where users could choose a "desktop image" they want to use, whatever the distro base
Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and have a great week!
Comments
I'm very surprised with the results of the poll. I've been daily driving linux computers for a few years now and here's my thoughts : - hardware problems are definitely a thing, thought I would not have expected GPUs to be dominant. GPU compatility is pretty moch done for. I can't see how this would even cause any more problems. I have installed a multitude of different linux computers with a mix of amd and nvidia gpus, and i've tried almost every configuration of gpu+drivers, mainly : amd igp+nvidia gpu w/ proprietary drivers, intel igp+nvidia gpu w/ prop drivers, amd igp+nvidia gpu w/ o-s drivers, discrete amd gpus, discrete nvidia gpus. Never had a problem so i'm a bit surprised here. - Wifi/bluetooth drivers are also done for. There might not be a foss driver when installing your os, but there are definitely drivers you can install, and have very solid performances. - Afaik, the main issues are with peripherals, ie usb headsets, mice, keyboards, and any other proprietary usb device. I know that for usb mice and some keyboards, there is the piper project, thought you need to know about it in the first place. Usb headsets are not supported at all on linux and results are horrible. I used to use a logitech g633 usb 7.1 headset and when switching to linux i had to fall back to a stereo headset because of support and performances (this has been for the better thought, but still...) - office suites are also surprising when onlyoffice exists, but then when you see tha microsoft pushed edge on linux and still not office, it grinds your gears
Mickael Almeida
2024-05-29 08:11:13 +0000 UTCIt absolutely seems like something we'll mostly all move to in a decade, yeah. I have been eying Ublue for a while now, I'll even briefly mention Bazzite in a video coming soon :) I'll need to dive deeper into how it works in a specific video, though, probably through an interview with Jorge Castro, who kickstarted all this project!
The Linux Experiment
2024-05-28 07:11:11 +0000 UTCHaving the option to swap out a component of your system is almost always a good idea as long as the feature is as stable as the rest of the distribution. Immutable distributions that are built from container images, like uBlue, seem to be the best way to do this. In case you're not familiar, uBlue builds upon Fedora's built-in support for booting from OCI-compatible container images. It's not like the OS is running in a container though; OCI images are leveraged as a format for defining the immutable base of the OS because of all of the tooling that's already been built for it and proven in the cloud. Container images are especially effective at improving stability and modularity by layering multiple images. Here's the layers of uBlue (not actually correct, but close enough at a high level): Scratch - Most basic image Fedora - Based on scratch uBlue/config - Based on Fedora and adds various optimizations for different hardware. You could make a different image for every device. uBlue/main - Based on uBlue/config. You can boot from this. uBlue/(DE) - Based on uBlue/main. This adds Gnome, KDE or a customized version of any desktop environment. uBlue calls these Bluefin, Aurora and Bazzite. End-User - If the user wants, they can make their own image based on uBlue/(DE) that adds VSCode or removes something they don't like. Containerized apps - Flatpaks, distrobox, etc. This is what uBlue is calling the "cloud-native" model as this model was originally developed for the cloud and has worked very well. uBlue won't work for a lot of people yet due to compatibility issues and because it's a paradigm shift for the Linux desktop. However, this "cloud-native" model does seem to be the best way forward.
Nyxiad
2024-05-27 15:38:40 +0000 UTC
