Yes that might work. I used torrent to download the install iso. The Solus site download was slow. However its updates are quite fast…
Keep an oversight on it… make sure he does his updates… about once a month is enough.
My dad doesn’t like to update his computer so frequently, so maybe KDE Neon would work for us
An update is different from an upgrade. It happens silently in the background while you are working. It rarely makes any noticeable difference. Doesnt even need a reboot. Not like Windows updates.
I wouldn’t say, it’s always a clear distinction. Most of the time, an upgrade is just a huge update.
The yearly Windows “updates” are essentially upgrades.
Beyond that, technically any upgrade is just an update. Bringing something on a new version, etc.
The easiest distinction is perhaps to make, when you do the good old apt-get upgrade from the old times.
apt-get upgrade → “update”
apt-get dist-upgrade → “upgrade”
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Right. Rolling release blurs the distinction… or if you like it is all updates
then why should he update solus every month then if it’s automated and in the background?
Its not automated in my setup. I click the button when I want it to update. I think you can set it to automatic… will check
You do understand the need to update any linux? There us no escaping updates. Even Debian has regular security updates…
But linux is a lot better than windows at updates. It just does it without interfering with your work… ie no reboots… you can even be using a piece of software while it is being updated. That is what I meant by in background.
Can you explain where the “derivatives” are lacking? My experience is rather limited here. I use Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and all of the software I put on Ubuntu also works on Linux Mint. Why would I want to choose Ubuntu over Linux Mint?
There are lots of people who used a derivative of one of the big ones and they had issues with sometimes the simplest stuff. As soon as they switched to the base distribution, which the one in question was derived from, all the issues or at least a majority disappeared. Just like that, without any fixing necessary.
For example, I know a case where someone used Artix (based on Arch Linux) and that person would not be able to get important software packages to run. They just wouldn’t work. Additionally, weird issues appeared. For example, there were glaring font issues in the browser. All these issues were inacceptable.
Then the same person switched to plain old Arch Linux and all the issues disappeared into thin air. Just like that.
This is one example from people I know, personally.
Now, when it comes to online communities, there are tons of posts from people using Manjaro or Artix or whatever, having issues with, most of the time, pretty basic stuff. These issues however do not appear on the base distributions and mostly disappear once you switch to the base distribution.
The big base distributions, like Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora (Red Hat family), Debian are fleshed out and very mature. However, even if the derivatives are based on them, they add a lot of instability, even though the base distribution is pretty stable.
Another quite funny example is Manjaro. I’ve seen so much hype about Manjaro and yet this is one of the most broken Arch Linux based distributions I have ever seen! Manjaro has pretty much become a running gag among Arch users, because it constantly runs into a variety of issues, which are pretty much non-existent on Arch Linux. Yet, so much hype still remains with Manjaro.
Now, that was a lot of talking about Arch Linux.
What about Linux Mint?
Everyone thinks it’s pretty much the same as Ubuntu. It’s not (anymore).
There is a significant amount of issues even in this forum that go like this:
“I tried X on Linux Mint. Did not work. I tried X on Ubuntu. Now, it works.”
This specific Linux Mint example can be looked up in this forum and you can find many threads like that.
However, the essence of that remains true for all major derivatives. How many times have I seen a quote like the one above. Just replace “Linux Mint” with any distribution that is based on one of the big mature ones.
I think @Akito is referring to the support staff managing a distro.
Derivatives tend to be smaller efforts with fewer staff… and the consequence is that they sometimes get into package management difficulties.
Large long standing distros like Debian and OpenSuse tend to be very well managed, and therefore stable
It is only a trend. There are exceptions
Yes, that’s what I was partially getting at, plus I was trying to go beyond that.
The base distributions have huge support communities. Now, Ubuntu is basically in the positive spiral upwards. It is popular. Therefore, more people use it. More people use it, so there is more user support, more guides, more tutorials, more software support and more people work on the distribution to improve it. That improves the distribution. So, it gets even more popular. Now, even more people start using it, etc. Rinse and repeat.
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That is 95% of it
It is only a trend. There are exceptions
What are the exceptions? I think the small independent distros powered by one exceptional individual. Not so much the derivatives.
Some of the best creative efforts come from small independent distros. They bear watching. One of them may be the next big leap forward.
In science it takes a paradigm shift to make significant progress. Paradigm shifts are usually single person efforts. The same is true of distros.
btw, I realized I can just do
alias u = brew cu -a
u
Now you have bleeding edge… even with debian. go in Konsole(KDE kid here), install brew and it’s extensions, and copy paste the code I wrote above. u time!
I would really suggest Manjaro!
First used the GNOME edition but then switched to the XFCE one!
Loved this!
The points which I like about Manjaro:
- You always get the latest software.
- Even though the software is bleeding-edge, it is stable. Thanks to Manjaro team for checking every package in their repos.
- Has a HUGE community and you get support on almost anything.
- The XFCE or KDE edition will work on almost any computer!
Thanks for reading!
Regards,
Hrishikesh
Likewise, I’ve been using distro after distro from the mid-1990s (even tried SLS before that, but conceded defeat). It was only after moving from Ubuntu to Linux that I realised how much I’d forgotten about Linux.
I’ve been using Arch Linux on desktops, laptops, Raspberry Pi, CubieBoard & BeagleBone Black, and see no real reason to change - BUT - I’m curious; I intend keeping Arch, however I’ve downloaded Linux From Scratch.
Welcome @Kwacka ,
If you use Arch and are interested in LFS, then you are quite experienced and might be interested in Void.
Regards
Neville
Hi,
Thanks for the suggestion - it looks interesting, I’ll see if I can get it installed in VirtualBox.
The Void handbook is good documentation