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1 • Android x86 (by schultzter on 2014-03-17 14:12:27 GMT from Canada)
I tried Android x86 as well, an older version, and came to the same conclusion: not a keyboard + mouse OS in it's current state. Owners of an Asus Transformer might disagree. Driver issues aside (I also had some video driver issues) I was also concerned by the lack of apps that run correctly and provide the same functionality as what I can do with Arch on the same laptop. Perhaps if Android x86 becomes more popular we'll see apps dedicated for this kind of platform. But then, this platform is what Chrome OS is for, right?!
2 • Android x86, an experiment? (by Garon on 2014-03-17 14:55:14 GMT from United States)
Android x86 seems to me to be more of an experiment then anything else. Chrome OS or Peppermint 4 could very well do the same things but they are not Android x86. Android x86 tries more or less to be a duplication of your Android phone. I'm sure it will improve as time goes along.
3 • Advancing distro tech (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-03-17 14:57:44 GMT from United States)
Imagine combining the advantages of GoboLinux and NixOS ...
4 • new package management (by Carlo on 2014-03-17 15:37:01 GMT from Italy)
Oh please enough with this phantomatic "DLL missing" error in Windows... it is not happening since Win3.1 !! Truth is, it's very very difficoult for the average joe to screw software installation in Windows, at least in comparison with the PITA that is the package management in Linux.
I welcome things like this nixOS package manager, or the bundle system mentioned in the article, that at least try to fix it. This one from NixOS seems interesting enough: creating an abstraction layer for the user is a nice solution.
What I would like, though, is physical packages to be more self containing. E.g., I want to install/upgrade LibreOffice ? I should just need to download one package, not a dozen.
I could be wrong, but I also believe that the small size of the packages is highly inefficient in bandwidth use during the download, at least in the way current package management front-ends (aptitude, yum, apper) implement it.
Unfortunately for most examples it is utopic, at least in the collaborative floss world: it's very unlikely that distributions will take in charge of not only repackaging upstreams, but also to bundle several executables and shared libs.
5 • RE: #4 (by whoamI on 2014-03-17 16:15:36 GMT from United States)
@Carlo: "Oh please enough with this phantomatic "DLL missing" error in Windows... it is not happening since Win3.1 !!" Perhaps this is true for you, but please do not generalize for all users. I had the same problems in Windows 98, the last version I regularly used, nd I'm sure my wife had occasional issues in XP.
As for package management in Linux, I do not find it a PITA compared to Windows, merely different. The one thing we do agree on is that NixOS sounds interesting.
6 • What world do you live in? (by Garon on 2014-03-17 16:31:48 GMT from United States)
@4,
"Truth is, it's very very difficoult for the average joe to screw software installation in Windows, at least in comparison with the PITA that is the package management in Linux."
That is nonsense. Every day I run into people who can't get this program install or are having trouble with version numbers or architecture type. And yes you do have some not able to find .dll after installs. Not often but it does happen. So don't pretend that there are no problems at all with installing software in MS Windows. What is this PITA you speak of in linux? You will not find anything easier to use to install software than the Ubuntu Software Center or the Deepin Software Center, or whatever it's called. Even LinuxMint has a good software center. I agree that packages could or should be made more compact and self contained and updates be handled better, but that's not just relegated to Linux. You do run into the same problems with most operating systems when programs or applications are updated. Maybe there is hope with the "delta updates" people have been talking about.
7 • @6 (by Carlo on 2014-03-17 17:01:19 GMT from Italy)
Every day I run into non-computer literate people who install all kind of crap on their Win7 machines, but 99% percent of time if the software is not malicious the uninstallation is quite easy.
So you see, I have the exact opposite experience. So, what world do *you* live in?
8 • @5 (by Carlo on 2014-03-17 17:05:02 GMT from Italy)
You're joking right? Win98 was released in 1997 (17 years ago) and WinXP in 2001 (13 years ago). you don't presume that *maybe* windows' packet management has got better in the meantime?
For the records, PM in linux in those years was a *real* PITA compared to Win98 because of the "depencency hell" thing. Intelligent front-ends like apt(itude), yum or zypper had to be created yet.
9 • @4, 7 & 8 by Carlo (by GregNOIBN on 2014-03-17 17:43:28 GMT from United States)
Carlo,
90% of distrowatch readers already know installing programs in any modern Linux is just as simple as installing a program in Win XP or 7. Did you stop running Linux back in 2003 or 2004? Installs are now as easy and good as eating a great home-made Italian dinner.
All the default, main Linux package managers will completely and safely install programs with a simple click of the install button (or two click for some - apply and then install).
No dependency issues (I've had one dependency problem in 11 years of running Linux).
But, in Windows, a user has to watch what the installer does very closely, so you are ONLY installing the main program instead of several hidden attached spyware or similar program that modifies your browser or is just a general pain in the arzz. This is not the case with Linux installs for 99.9% of installs.
10 • dll and stuff (by Wolf on 2014-03-17 18:08:06 GMT from Germany)
Guys you are both right
I recently bought and installed a cheap IR Camera for surveillance. Not a Linux driver anywhere so null problemo I thought WIN 7 is my friend just throw the control software on and you're ready to go... since then even my rock solid WIN 7 Install with zero hiccups whatsoever turned blue from time to time (you know what I mean exception #!§$%!!!# in dll 8472852).
After that i deinstalled everything but still... only a complete System Backup did the trick.
I assume that buggy Software would've bugged my linux install the same way, if it only existed. So all in all I say I prefer the linux (community) way, if I had given any thought to the problem at hand, I would have known to search for linux compatible Hardware in the first place and paid the (higher) price!
My luck one only needs the driver for configuring the surveillance range of the camera and never again.
Bye
11 • Wow, no takers. (by Garon on 2014-03-17 18:56:27 GMT from United States)
From what I can find it seems that no one wants to adopt the delta software scheme. It just seems like maybe a good solution to large updates and not having to download the same packages or libraries again. Anyone know why not?
12 • Exton|OS and USU (by Ray on 2014-03-17 19:09:58 GMT from United States)
I will be testing both of the waiting list additions, they both look really nice tbh. Exton|OS is done by the same person/group as ExTix in case anyone uses ExTix already. Usu offers 3 versions, Desktop, Mini, and Netbook, with netbook being the one I am most interested in, since the few distros that actually made a netbook version seem to have let support etc wane.
13 • Delta upgrades (by Jeff on 2014-03-17 19:17:42 GMT from United States)
Debdelta is available in Debian, as with most things in Debian it is but one of many options.
Fedora has deltarpms (or so I have been told)
The main thing is that for some reason these are not default, why I do not know.
14 • #GregNOIBN (by Ika on 2014-03-17 19:55:06 GMT from Spain)
"But, in Windows, a user has to watch what the installer does very closely, so you are ONLY installing the main program instead of several hidden attached spyware or similar program that modifies your browser..."
+1! Not mentioning some programs never are completely un-installed even though you are cleaning the Registry. For example, just install a trial program (like say Kaspesky or Nero) and after the 30 days of trial give it a complete un-installation. Then give a regedit to open the Registry, clean it (BTW, you'll find here a lot of strange entries :D ) and then try to reinstall the trial program. Suposedly it should be now completely removed. Nevertheless, after installing again thet program it will come out that the 30 days trial period is already gone because the program was already used. So, where that spying leftover is located?
Or try to completely uninstall Norton. One of its components - Norton Identity Safe - will NEVER - be uninstalled (OK, I'm using Norton though in my Windows as it is, IMO the best).
And the list is large...
@Carlo
I had isuues with .dlls in Win Vista and 7 too.
And I agree with GregNOIBN: "Did you stop running Linux back in 2003 or 2004?"
I started looking at Linux back in 2009-2010 and, after some distro-hoping, I settled in PCLinuxOS. Jusy give it a try and see how install/remove software is working - but there are many other distros like Debian, Manjaro, *buntu (though I shy away to infect my machines with *buntus).
@Nix.
Sounds really interesting and very nice and useful. Hoping Nix will have the power to evolve and get acceptayion and implementation in Linux.
@Android
Hmmm... My question is: isn't it another spyware system? Don't Linux ecosystem have enough with this Linux Windows named Ub----? (can't even write the name ;D ). Or Google OS?
All the best.
15 • Delta rpms (by greentea on 2014-03-17 19:58:08 GMT from France)
In my experience, delta rpms take the same amount of time to install as normal packages. The only benefit is saving a little bandwidth which does not matter to me.
16 • @10 re: IR cam (by SilverBear on 2014-03-17 22:44:40 GMT from United States)
I realize this doesn't help you. But my son was on a military training gig in the Mojave desert a couple years ago. I have no idea what brand/make/model hardware was used, but he said the perimeter security system they set up for their "camp" was running on Red Hat Linux to manage all the IR cams.
Apparently coyotes and wild donkeys were the major threats detected.
17 • @15 Delta rpms (by Jeff on 2014-03-18 00:23:04 GMT from United States)
After reading the earlier comments and posting I did some more research, what time you may save downloading is often countered by the time used rebuilding the packages.
So deltas are probably best for those with very limited internet.
18 • NixOS (by cflow on 2014-03-18 02:06:40 GMT from United States)
I must say... I looked at this project's website many months before it was added to Distrowatch's database, and thought is package management features sounded really clever and useful. I skipped trying it, though, for many reasons:
1: If the Nix package manager worked as good as they said, I'd have assumed other major distributions would have picked up on it by placing it in their repositories. It made me think of it as still super experimental and unstable.
2: The screenshots on their website were - and still are - of KDE 4.2, which made me wonder how dated the OS really was in actual development.
3. When reading the installation instructions, the fact that you had to type terminal commands really scared me. I can do basic command line tasks, but to install the entire operating system, and right beside another one... I felt it would be too risky for me to do.
However, after reading this review, I think many of my concerns were addressed - especially the first one. I think I might try an installation some time to see how it works. That is, however, if I can ever remove my fear of manual installation...
Thanks for the review!
19 • Software Installation (by Peter Besenbruch on 2014-03-18 02:35:01 GMT from United States)
I ran into DLL hell last week, when I installed Turbotax 2013. OK, it was a lukewarm hell, because I can DuckDuckGo with the best of them, and I found a relatively simple fix.
As far as Nix is concerned, the "generations" feature looks interesting. The bug encountered makes Nix look less so for a production system. I tend to run Debian Stable, and don't want surprises. Still, Nix might be good for people who want a snapshot feature while not running on a virtual machine, or with a fancy file system. Nix is something to watch.
20 • @18 NixOS (by Anonymous Coward on 2014-03-18 02:46:28 GMT from United States)
In my experience, with one-off systems like this, installation is only half the battle. What you really have to watch out for is hardware compatibility, especially on laptops.
But since this system uses the Linux kernel, that probably would be less of a concern.
As you said, if the ideas in NixOS turn out to be revolutionary, you'll begin to see more of its methods used in other systems. Even the best ideas need time to work out their kinks and reach a decent level of maturity.
Experimenting can easily lead to a bricked system. Some, like BSD's, can be downright destructive in the way they aggressively format hard disks and boot loaders. So generally I prefer to just watch the progress, or if I really need to test it out, use a virtual machine.
21 • This 'n' that (by eco2geek on 2014-03-18 03:17:31 GMT from United States)
@11: openSUSE currently uses delta rpms to do upgrades.
Regarding package management in Linux: I remember trying to upgrade pan, the newsreader, on Red Hat Linux 6.something, using the newer rpm from pan's website and the "rpmfind" database, over a dial-up connection. It turned into a process of "install this rpm...which requires this rpm....which needs this rpm", to the point where I decided to stop and just go and buy and install a newer version of Red Hat Linux from CD. (Those were the days before Fedora and before "yum".)
Broadband Internet connections and package managers which do dependency checking have largely made that kind of experience a thing of the past.
As a longtime user of Windows, I've never had much of a problem with so-called "dll hell". As noted above, it's usually much harder to completely uninstall software than it is to install it.
22 • @11: I believe yum also uses delta rpms... (by eco2geek on 2014-03-18 03:19:19 GMT from United States)
...to do upgrades.
23 • @21 - Windows (un)install (by Anonymous Coward on 2014-03-18 03:37:40 GMT from United States)
"As a longtime user of Windows, I've never had much of a problem with so-called "dll hell". As noted above, it's usually much harder to completely uninstall software than it is to install it."
There are few things I hate worse than a Windows registry....
24 • last line of comment 21 (by jz on 2014-03-18 03:50:22 GMT from Brazil)
By Murphy's law : Almost everything is easy to put in than to take off!!!!!
25 • @Carlo (#4, #8 (by Angel on 2014-03-18 10:39:25 GMT from Philippines)
Funny thing, I got a call today ( No, not 12 years ago.) from a customer who was concerned about his memory usage on Windows 7. Trying to duplicate his setup and his perceived problem, I downloaded and installed Google Chrome. It started up as a black window, unusable. Bad install, so went to uninstall. The uninstaller would not work. A couple of tries and it was time to get trusty old Revo. After some false tries and two or three restarts, It finally decided to leave in peace.
I maintain and repair Windows PCs. Don't give me this canard about no problems with installing or uninstalling. Happens all the time. Main reason I use Linux on my own PCs is that have little time to spend fudging around with them
Turns out the customer was worried needlessly. His memory usage was right on the money. So not so bad after all.:-)
26 • The Real World. (by Garon on 2014-03-18 13:18:09 GMT from United States)
@7,
I live in the real world Carlo.This statement, "the uninstallation is quite easy." that you made is not indicative of a Windows uninstall. I'm sure your customers would be shocked to see the remains of programs that was so called "uninstalled." I've worked with these things since the CP/M days. I speak from experience.
@14,
Come on Ika. You talk about Android, and the Ubuntu's and their derivatives and say they have spyware installed or they are a spyware system, when it is nothing of the sort, and in the same comment you talk about your Win system along with super "Norton". LOL That is wrong on so many levels. Also I believe you mean Chrome OS instead of Google OS. :D
27 • @26 (by Ika on 2014-03-18 15:22:16 GMT from Spain)
"I believe you mean Chrome OS instead of Google OS. :D"
Yes, you're right... :)
As for my Windows installation... Yes, for one reason or another I have to use this OS (maybe will consider in the future to use a virtual machine for that purpose, but I don't like VMs...) so I have enough with one Windows, no need another one(s). ;D
28 • User-level installs available by default? AWESOME (by James on 2014-03-18 16:00:48 GMT from United States)
I'm not easily impressed, but this is something I've wanted built-in to a distribution for a long time. It's important from both a security and a usability perspective. I'm definitely going to have to check this one out.
29 • @26 Do you own an Android phone? (by GNUday on 2014-03-18 19:30:21 GMT from Canada)
I do, and my carrier INGRAINED Facebook so much so, I have to root the phone (voiding the warranty) to shut it off or uninstall it, you do realize Facebook is FOURTH PARTY to me, my carrier and Google (the Android author), of which I did not agree to any EULA for mega corporation Facebook to be present and/or running on my phone at any time, especially when I enable packet data, besides the insane list of permissions the Facebook app has, none of which I agreed to. It doesn't stop there, there are other apps that want to guzzle my packet data bandwidth in the name of demographics ad revenue snooping, location pinpointing, etc, so when you say there is "no spyware" on a carrier installed default Android phone, YOU are "wrong on so many levels".
I agree with you on the Ubuntu derivatives, it's pretty much only Ubuntu themselves that have the desktop search data leaving the local machine so Amazon can 'tailor' ads and send to you, on YOUR bandwidth.
30 • Android x86 (by doug on 2014-03-18 19:58:40 GMT from United States)
I setup my old Acer 9" netbook to multiboot Crunchbang Linux, Android x86 4.0 (eeepc spin) and Windows XP. I mostly use Linux, but I find Android quite usable on the netbook and use it frequently. I tend to prefer to use the mouse, but the trackpad works fine. Both WiFi and wired Ethernet work. Performace is fine, despite having a single-core Atom N270 with 1 GB DDR2. I've installed apps from the Play Store and the Amazon app store.
A key advantage to having Android is the number of apps. I used to have to use Windows for some things that I could not do on Linux. I now find that I can usually use Android to supplement Linux and never need to boot Windows at all.
I tried 4.4-rc1 via USB boot and was pleasantly surprised that the driver support seemed complete, eliminating the need for the eeepc spin. All devices worked. For me, the youtube app did not work, but youtube worked properly in the browser. I did not spend too much with the rc1 because it was clear that they were swatting a number of bugs, as one would expect.
I will install and use 4.4 when the bugs are cleaned up.
31 • Android X86 (by William Barath on 2014-03-19 07:56:21 GMT from Canada)
Jesse: did you try tipping your device to change the screen orientation? You probably have an accelerometer in your hard-drive which it used to (incorrectly) determine the orientation of the device, however that doesn't mean that you can't give it a nudge to flip it the right way around, so long as it thinks that the device is laying flat.
For example, my laptop screen rotates clockwise when I tip it up in my lap (annoying)
32 • accelerometer (by William Barath on 2014-03-19 08:11:08 GMT from Canada)
I should mention that the accelerometer shows up as a joystick as well and causes me some grief in some games which think I'm using the stick... Bard's Tale from the Humble Bundle is one example... unplayable unless I unload the kernel module or run jscal to center the joystick when I have it tipped up at a comfortable typing angle... but I definitely have to sudo rmmod analog; sudo rmmod joydev, unless I want to try steering a driving game by tipping my laptop... (which I have done to impress my friends, lol) None of that will help you with Android unless you root it.
33 • Android x86 (by OJTimpson on 2014-03-19 11:07:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
I got the same annoying problem of screen rotation when I was testing Android x86 on a laptop. The best bet is to turn screen rotation off before running any apps, but there are still some apps that only run in portrait mode. In this case, a quick press of the 'home' button should return you to landscape and you'll have to remove or never use that app again. Having said this, some have a portrait 'welcome' screen and will then run happily in landscape once that is navigated through once - Dolphin browser being one example.
I too found quite a few apps that crashed or just didn't run, and as most games are designed for touch screens with an accelerometer, mileage will most certainly vary as to how playable they are eg Angry Birds can be played using the touchpad, but you can't zoom in/out (this is done by pinching the screen).
BBC iPlayer installed, but the BBC Media Player back-end locked up.
Unless the devs start putting a lot more drivers into the kernel, don't assume that a touch screen laptop will work with Android x86 unless it was one of those previously tested (eg eeepc) - the touchscreen on anHP Mini 5102 for example, doesn't work, though the webcam does. It would be interesting to see if Skype works.
All in all, an interesting concept and much improved since I last tested it. If you do gmail and google calendars then the integration is nice, but otherwise, it is probably limited to web browsing (without flash) and some game play.
34 • Puppy is alive! (by Hugo Masse on 2014-03-19 14:59:23 GMT from Mexico)
It was great news to see that Barry's leaving Puppy development to devote himself to other projects has not affected Puppy. I've tried out Slacko 5.7 and it's refreshing to see new tools and ideas. I've also realized now that there is a large community of Puppy enthusiasts developing all sorts of things. Hooray for this lovely project!
35 • Software management (by M.Z. on 2014-03-20 07:49:03 GMT from United States)
Like others I've also had problems with dll hell long after windows 3.1. In fact I'm young enough that I don't even think I ever used windows 3.1, but I sure do remember a huge amount of frustration over at least a couple of messages about dll errors. I'd also say that I think software management is a genuine strength of all the versions of Linux that I use. When I was mostly using vista & booting into Linux some of the time I could keep Linux updated very easily with the package manager, but trying to do the reverse eventually became an exercise in frustration given how many programs I wanted to keep updated. Running manual checks for updates on lots of programs can be a real pain, which is one reason why I don't remember the last time I booted up vista.
Anyway, thanks to the folks at the Nix project for trying to further improve package management, it sounds like a useful & interesting project.
36 • updates& packages & @35 (by greg on 2014-03-20 09:11:01 GMT from Slovenia)
well in windows update is usually made when you startup the program. though lately they started to include some updates in their regular updates.
anyway it would be good to have something like DOS in linux. i mean everything a program needs is contained in one folder. to remove the program just delete the folder. instead windows and linux .have shared libraries and the OS just get bigger and bigger leaving garbage behind after uninstall (windows a lot more than linux). it's a mess in the disk.
37 • @36 (by M.Z. on 2014-03-20 17:49:14 GMT from United States)
Yes that's what I'm saying, you have to at very least open every program that you think should be updated manually, which is okay if it's a computer that you use regularly but otherwise it gets to be a pain. This is especially true if you have several internet facing programs that you want to be able to feel secure just running & you don't boot into the OS that they're on regularly. It's a lot simpler to just open one package/update manager every so often & use a few clicks to check for & apply all updates at once. For instance I have a backup computer with Debian on it that I don't use very often, but I can open Apper & check all updates in a fraction of the time it would take to try & update everything on windows. It's just a lot easier on Linux.
38 • Updating many; one kudo for Mark (by Fossilizing Dinosaur on 2014-03-20 18:25:03 GMT from United States)
Updating what isn't running may be controllable, but updating what's running is a bit dicey, especially drivers (kernel), thus I rarely appreciate blindly mixing all updates in one procedure.
On another topic, I applaud bumping the discussion of un-audited software drivers, and suggesting separation executables from declaratives. It' would be a change long overdue. Of course, there's rarely agreement on who should provide authoritative validation, and in these litigious times few dare volunteer.
39 • Nix (by Kazlu on 2014-03-21 12:19:44 GMT from France)
I fail to see how the Nix package manager avoids "dependancy hell". Maybe I need some explanation. I mean, first, I did never meet that "depency hell" personnally: using GNU/Linux since 2007, I have never had a *single* dependancy problem during installation or upgrade. Zero problem. Nada. I had trouble finding the correct dependancies only when I tried to compile software myself. Even with Ubuntu's network upgrades, I have had only one problem: Ubuntu 12.10's Linux kernel did not support my video card although 12.04's kernel did. I knew it was risky, I knew the live CD didn't bring me the desktop but it was a testing environment and I upgraded anyway just to see if I could do something. But that does not have anything to do with dependancy problems. So, no problem myself, but I admit it could happen one day, it happens to others, and I want to be ready when (if) the time comes.
Now, if I get this right, basically Nix reads a config file and uses what is in it to download and install programs... with their dependancies. How does it make installation and dependancy management any different from the usual package managers we know? It's just a layer above command line installation. I agree user independance reduces the risk of conflict on a multi-user system, but on a single-user machine it seems to me that it does not bring much. As far as rollbacks are concerned, that's precisely one of the points of Btrfs, so why add this functionnality in the package manager?
The only clear new and good point I see here is that is makes distro reinstallation - and, eventually, distro upgrade - much easier. Indeed, just copy the config file, do a fresh installation, put in place your backed up config file, have the package manager doing a barrel roll and you're good to go. A /home backup would also help of course :)
That backup ease in itself could be a sufficient reason to be interested in Nix, but since a lot of you talk about others aspects of Nix I am a little confused. Did I miss something?
40 • nix (by mandog on 2014-03-21 13:45:31 GMT from Peru)
@39
The only clear new and good point I see here is that is makes distro reinstallation - and, eventually, distro upgrade - much easier. Indeed, just copy the config file, do a fresh installation, put in place your backed up config file, have the package manager doing a barrel roll and you're good to go. A /home backup would also help of course :)
Its not new pacman arch /synaptic Debian and possibly others do this just most people don't bother to find out this, is why arch reinstalls are fast copy the text file into your new home directory. call up pacman and it downloads all the packages and installs them
41 • @40 (by Kazlu on 2014-03-21 15:34:08 GMT from France)
For an simple reinstallation, it is true indeed. At least I knew it for Debian, not for Arch, but I did not look for it. However, this method cannot be used in Debian for upgrades, since packages may change from one release to the other. One has to do manual editing of the list of installed packages in order to reinstall its packages after fresh installation of the newer release. Where the Nix way is interesting is that the config file may contain services instead of packages. This way, even if the set of packages has changed in the newer release, one can install the same set of services without editing the config file: the package manager will get the proper package selection for the indicated services in the newer release.
42 • @39 (by Somewhat Reticent on 2014-03-21 18:46:11 GMT from United States)
Kazlu: Perhaps for a distro with a carefully-managed repository, dependency-hell is a common developer challenge, and rarely an end-user conundrum. As you noted, not during an update/upgrade, but when compiling from (incomplete/not-fully-documented?) source.
43 • dependency hell/ broken apps (by M.Z. on 2014-03-21 21:41:02 GMT from United States)
I actually have run into a few problems with a specific application that I think were dependency related. I do some occasional work with GIS (which is stuff with data on maps like census numbers, pollution in a given area, etc.), and for me the best seeming opensource program is QGIS. Unfortunately I've had failures with this program loading in both Mint & PCLOS. Mint seems to have switched back to the version used in Debian stable on their current release & all is well there, but I haven't been able to get QGIS to load in PCLOS for a while. Given the rolling nature of the distro I'm guessing that there is some sort of conflict between the version numbers of some dependency needed for QGIS & some other application, but I'm not sure and there seem to be no recent updates on previous dependency issues mentioned in the forums.
Anyway there are still some apparent problems even on Ubuntu based distros like Mint. I'd guess that any application that seems 'obscure' for most users of a distro would be at some degree of risk for dependency problems if you’re on anything less tested than something like Debian stable. It seems like troubleshooting the problem or finding a workaround would be easier with Nix than other package managers given the ability to roll back software and/or have different user profiles, which makes this new package manager sounds fairly useful to me.
44 • @43- broken apps (by Tony on 2014-03-22 10:43:37 GMT from Thailand)
MZ
I have just installed QGIS 2.01 on PCLinuxOS.
It had 33 dependencies, but it installed without a glitch.
32bit hardware-32bit software -- PCLinuxOS-KDE-Minime, fully updated
Hope this helps.
Tony
45 • Step forward, but... (by Knacker on 2014-03-23 02:21:14 GMT from Canada)
Yes NIx package manager is a step forward but...
1) it would be interesting how would it pan out in a long run- whether system won't become bloated just because of all those old "recovery files"
2) problem with WIndows or a lot of Linuxes is that many times after installing something it doesn't apparently break the system and you realize that something is wrong weeks/months later when you would like to use some program which doesn't work anymore. With NixOS there is a "roll back" solution (aka Windows' system restore), but the problem is that it wipes out everything (all instalations and upgrades) what happened beteween current state and faulty program instalation in the past... Not the best approach :(
46 • Nix (by Kazlu on 2014-03-23 14:31:13 GMT from France)
I read a little of the Nix's manual page Jesse has linked in his review (http://nixos.org/nix/manual/). I got what I missed: Nix installs programs in bundles with all their required dependencies in separate folders. My bad, I didn't look for the information, I recognize it. Now that I see the point, I find this indeed very interesting. It's very much like PC-BSD's PBI bundles. What I find particularly interesting here is that we can install Nix on any GNU/Linux distro (or theoreticaly any Unix system) alongside our regular package manager. That allows us to choose between the two ways: either the smaller packages (to downoad and to load in RAM) of the regular package manager, with the potential risk of breakage, or the big bundles from Nix without any dependency conflict. I would be glad to have the ability to use my regular package manager by default and also be able to use Nix occasionally for a risky or badly packaged piece of software. I think that the two ways are complementary and I am looking forward to seeing this project grow.
47 • @46 (by tony on 2014-03-24 00:56:23 GMT from Thailand)
@46
>>>I think that the two ways are complementary and I am looking forward to seeing this project grow.
Maybe you would be interested in GoboLinux which shows simularites.
They have an old iso available and a new one in the make.
48 • Android 4.4 (by Michael Leones on 2014-03-24 05:13:18 GMT from United States)
I installed this distro on a AMD Quad core 8150 PC with 16g memory
with an AMD GPU video card. Also 2.4 wireless (Logitech) keyboard/mouse. Everything works except the keyboard. I installed a USB KB and it fixed the issue. WI-FI and ethernet cards work out of the box. When it goes to screen saver, it locks. I had to disable the screen saver
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The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. To achieve this, Incognito uses the Tor network to make Internet traffic very hard to trace.
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