Reader supplied reviews for GoboLinux
Average rating
5.6 from 7 review(s)
Version: 017.01
Rating: 4
Date: 2025-05-10
Votes: 0
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It's not a horrible distro, but if python breaks, the entire system breaks, and it seems it's broken out of the box. You will be unable to install anything unless if you have in depth knowledge of symlinks and how gobolinux works. I have no idea what was going through the heads of the developers when they decided to make Compile (the package manager) dependent on python. A system like this should be built around posix shell or something instead of python.
But..
The general idea of the distro is amazing and I wish it had more polish and more community
It's just very hard to get it to actually work for packages
I recommend kiss linux which has a near identical package management system (recipes, manual build instructions) minus the unique file system and python nonsense. It has an active community as well, by randoms and not the developer as the first dev actually left. Much unlike this distro which is still (barely) maintained by the devs who have been doing so for around 20 years (all that work for this? add something new with this energy to make it stable instead). Though, kiss is very hard to get working, I personally quit upon being unable to get startx to work correctly on my user and not root, it's default init is also horrible and needs replaced by runit.
Also from the standpoint of minimalism, this distro does not achieve that, it comes with dozens of packages that you have to manually go through an obnoxious installer to remove, or remove them yourself once it's installed. It should have an option to come without anything but the base system, or to come without anything besides a working x server and nothing more.
Summarized:
Pros:
File system is amazing and can achieve a minimal nix like experience
Can make recipes automatically that most of the time work
Goboconnect is absolutely perfect
Package manager is actually very good and you can even compile your kernel with it
Cons:
It sucks because it's dependent on python which doesn't even work out of the box
By default it installs a lot of junk that is hard to remove
Uses grub which I personally dislike (efibootmgr is much more stable and easier to work with)
Doesn't have an automatic chrooting script like kiss linux
Deadest community of a linux distro I've ever seen
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Version: 017.01
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-04-01
Votes: 2
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A refreshing take on the filesystem (and, for those who want the traditional one - this one is also avaliable by default, just "hidden" via gobohide by default, so you actually don't even need to use the versioned directories per se; I used GoboLinux via FHS traditional /usr/ prefix just fine - although of course, using versioned AppDirs is the whole main point behind GoboLinux, so it makes more sense to use versioned AppDirs anyway).
With a new leadership focusing on improving various means, I estimate that it may take say three months starting from April 2025 before GoboLinux will pick up more pace again. (It's been semi-dormant for quite a while.)
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Version: 017.01
Rating: 2
Date: 2025-04-01
Votes: 0
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Could not get this to boot.... I attempted three different times and three image downloads; no indication the file is corrupted; but I could not boot on two different device attempts... I don't want to throw shade on this work; but I am not sure where I can go from here... My screen boot drops out to a "dracut:/#" prompt... Image was downloaded from distrowatch onto known good USB Flash drive.and booted with other distros... So, I will give this some additional time in the mill and let others chime in... This IS NOT an April Fools review.
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See all 7 reader reviews of GoboLinux...
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