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1 • Reviews (by grindstone on 2022-03-07 01:34:01 GMT from United States)
Thanks for doing the work of all these reviews. As linux has matured, it wouldn't surprise me if many of us feel the way you do regarding things getting out of the way so we can work. In a way, it's a credit to all of the work over the years that we now expect that. Beats messing with breakout boards and terminal types.
2 • XeroLinux (by Friar Tux on 2022-03-07 02:51:10 GMT from Canada)
XeroLinux flashy??? If that is their intended goal I'm afraid, in my books, they have failed miserably. From the screenshot Jesse supplied, all I see is flat, blue-tinted grey. No borders. No buttons. No gradients. In fact, they appear to be no different than the typical ugly, dark grey themes that are everywhere. Sorry to be so negative about this, but it appears we have lost the ability or patience to come up with decent-looking themes. I now don't bother with default themes anymore. I've manager to cobble together my own "Frankenthemes".
Having said all that, I do like the "Pho-Earth Adaptive" theme by nestort (on pling dot com). I've made a few minor adjustments to the colours, but I believe nestort is definitely on the right track.
3 • portmaster (by Trihexagonal on 2022-03-07 03:21:49 GMT from United States)
I like using portmaster when compiling FreeBSD ports. I've been using it a very long time and know it can be trusted to do the right thing, far more consistently than human beans. It will ask if I want to save the old version of the program and usually do but have never rolled back a program.
If there's a problem portmaster can't handle due to conflicts and balks, it's up to me as Robot Overlord to see what needs done to resolve it. Normally I will restart the build with the first portmaster command used and we go on as if it never happened.
On occasion I will determine the best solution to be mixing pkg with ports. Cries of terror from human beans as their concept of reality changes as it merges with the timeline not at all uncommon in the sub-species..
On my Debian-based Kali boxen I use apt and am very comfortable with it. If there's an impossible situation, something I was unaware existed until recently encountered while upgrading:
"Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming."
Skills acquired using ports allowed me to do what was thought not possible and move on by doing what I always do.
The unexpected.
4 • packagizing (by Gunther on 2022-03-07 04:48:47 GMT from Canada)
Good to see yet another packaging system - apko. Especially like the cross-platform aspect of it. But it seems a little complicated, being docker images and all. Maybe one day nix will have apps that are universally portable, and easy to install and uninstall. So far a tall order it seems.
5 • more lesser-known arches (by archie on 2022-03-07 05:15:25 GMT from New Zealand)
There are some really nice lesser-known Arch derivative distros. RebornOS (USA) and Mabox (PL) come to mind. I think a review of either would go smoother than the one-man-show antics of XeroLinux. PS - Xero is a trademarked (C) etc of an online accounting software.
6 • Packages (by Guido on 2022-03-07 06:22:24 GMT from Philippines)
I use pamac (Arch), there is an option to downgrade packages. This option is very hidden and usually disabled. I have not tried it.
7 • guix and nix (by add-a-pkg-manager on 2022-03-07 06:23:46 GMT from United States)
Both guix and nix come as a package manager, and as an OS. Full system rollbacks are available with guix system and nixOS (similar to timeshift/btrfs snapshots). You can install guix and nix as package managers, and roll back packages you installed using them at any time. Super cool!
8 • 27th and downgrades (by archie on 2022-03-07 07:15:43 GMT from New Zealand)
@6 - well spotted. Actually (cough) this is a DW weekly that fell through a wormhole from the future...
@7 pamac does support downgrading, which I have had to use once so far. It worked flawlessly.
9 • "Flashy" desktops (by Simon on 2022-03-07 07:50:15 GMT from New Zealand)
I grinned at "give it a colouring book and send it to another room so I can work in peace". Yep, that's how I feel about a lot of the "progress" on the desktop these days. For every useful improvement there are ten more flashed-up dumbed-down bits of nonsense that just get in the way of all the software that was working perfectly well twenty years ago.
I dredged up an ancient backup of an old GTK2 desktop the other day and was amazed at how clean and tidy and fast everything looked and felt...readable, usable, responsive...controls were exactly where you'd expect them to be rather than in it's-anyone's-guess-these-days locations that "creative" developers decide will be cooler than what actually works...ugh. I think it comes from sales/marketing culture, this repulsive obsession with changing everything constantly, regardless of how well it was working before you messed with it, and acting like software is somehow bad if it looks like it was designed earlier than last month. I'm just grateful the letters of the English language aren't in the hands of software developers, or we'd be using a different alphabet every year, to show how cool and modern we were, not stuck in the past with last year's dusty old alphabet.
10 • re. No.9 (by Someguy on 2022-03-07 09:13:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
You speak for the many! Surprised while you were at it you didn't launch into the curse of the modern world: mobile phones. Designed for the gullible to sell them stuff they don't need whilst mining their valuable saleable data, inter alia.
11 • Desktops (by Trevor on 2022-03-07 09:54:48 GMT from Canada)
I have been using Linux since 2009. One of the reasons I switched from Windows was I didn't want the "flashy" desktop; I just want a desktop that stays out of my way so I can get on with life. I prefer the XFCE desktop - it does what it does without all the bells and whistles of other desktops. I've tried the other desktops, and some of them are pretty nice - but they get in my way with all the notifications and effects.
If there's one piece of advise I would give to those who are either creating or editing desktops: If it isn't broke - don't fix it! Just "fine tune" it and move on.
Wouldn't it be nice if some major distros decided to go back to the GTK2 format of the desktop, but with all the tech of today baked in? It could happen - you never know.
The GNOME desktop, I'm afraid, might one day find itself in "the middle of nowhere" and ask itself, "Where has everybody gone?" I fully understand why they did what they did; but, IMHO, it might come back and bite them "you know where".
Just my two cents (or 1 and a half if you count inflation) ;)
12 • XeroLinux review, and flashy desktops (by Dr. Hu on 2022-03-07 11:18:08 GMT from Philippines)
@Jesse, Enjoyed the review, especially the line about coloring books, but if you want flashy Arch, Garuda is it.
@9, "old GTK2 desktop the other day and was amazed at how clean and tidy. . ." If I remember correctly, there was a lot of fooling with spinning cubes, wobbly windows, raining penguins, bouncing balls, and all kinds of gimmicky stuff. I know because I played with some of that for fun back in the day.
@11, 2009. "One of the reasons I switched from Windows was I didn't want the "flashy" desktop" Windows was flashy? Really? Take a look:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/01/old-ubuntu-desktop-video-compiz
@10, "mobile phones. Designed for the gullible to sell them stuff" You pose an ethnocentric, egocentric view. Example: The country I call home is poor. Millions are forced to travel to foreign lands to find work, away from their loved ones. To keep in touch, thirty years ago, it may have been leeters that took months, or expensive phone calls which had to be scheduled in advance. Ten years ago it was emails, or go to an internet cafe to be able to chat paying by the minute. Today they chat, message, have video calls with all the family when they want, cheaply or for free. This was made possible by the smartphone., Google, Facebook, et al. These things and many others made possible by smartphones are worth a lot more than some information gathering and advertising. Funny thing is you are posting on a website supported by advertisers. How long do you think DistroWatch would be able to offer free content otherwise? As Milton Friedman said, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
I use the Gnome desktop with the dash to dock extension. Simple, easy to use. Definitely not flashy.
13 • Rolling back packages (by James on 2022-03-07 11:38:03 GMT from United States)
Isn't rolling back specific packages a bit dangerous, risking putting you in dependency hell?
14 • Let me work WM (by Mikel on 2022-03-07 13:02:18 GMT from Germany)
ICEWM has been around about 30 years for a reason. Easy to configure using understandable plain text options, Lightweight stable reliable and fast.
It even offers simple tiling, automatic wapplication sizing and placement, even to a specified desktop if you use more than one, comfortable application autostarting too.
Found some nice howto posts on antiX linux forum.
15 • rolling back packages with yum history (by Raphael on 2022-03-07 13:25:39 GMT from Switzerland)
Redhat and CentOS do have history management:
$ sudo yum history
I am surprised not to have seen it mentioned anywhere. :-)
16 • Poll (by Otis on 2022-03-07 14:10:55 GMT from United States)
Perhaps another choice could have been worded something like, "Do any of your installed distros deploy a package manager with a built-in function for reverting changes?" Many of us have more than one distro installed on one machine, and some of us more than one machine.
17 • Xero Linux Review (by Otis on 2022-03-07 16:40:10 GMT from United States)
Garuda does the stated mission of Xero much much better, imo. Perhaps so much so that it gives us this flashiness seems all the way to its default rendering of web pages!
Nice try, Xero, but no banana.
18 • Rollbacks (by Robert on 2022-03-07 16:51:41 GMT from United States)
My desktop system runs arch, which doesn't provide rollback AFAIK. As you said, it's easy enough to rollback specific packages from the cache. For more catastrophic updates I roll back using LVM snapshots that I make before running pacman.
On my server I use OpenSuse in the transactional server configuration (read-only root). That provides a tool that automatically creates a snapshot to rollback in case of a failed update.
19 • Xero Linux - yet another useless distro (by Jyrki on 2022-03-07 19:25:03 GMT from Czechia)
very often there are voices that Linux has too many distros that offer no added value and it's just waste of resources. That is exactly what Xero Linux is about.
Look and feel is something very subjective, things attractive for someone is not acceptable for others. Distros where look is the only reason for existance are simply the most expendable. Xero is....simply ugly.
20 • Bad review (by DarkXero on 2022-03-07 20:14:06 GMT from Lebanon)
Hey..
I am the developer behind this. Jesse did many wrong things here which caused him to have a bad experience.. He got an outdated ISO, Did not follow guide I spent so much time on and twisted my words just to make me look bad..
March ISO has fixed so many of the issues he mentioned, as for Wayland, how the heck am I supposed to provide support for something, I, myself cannot use due to the fact that I use nVidia, so I cannot even login with it.. ??????
I can only provide support to what works, and I can test. I included Wayland to give those who CAN use it the option.. XeroLinux is all about the eye candy without being flashy like Garuda, and performance is great for me better than Garuda which is a lagfest..
But anyway am not gonna spend more words trying to to defend my Distro, as whatever I say you will take Jesse's words above my own..
I freaking hate reviews here, none of them are done after thorough testing, reviewers don't even contact us devs to understand what they are reviewing...
I am a one man army with one machine, doing my best.. With a review like this, my reputation is in the mud.. Then again, that's why I did NOT want Xero to show up here.. But what is done is done.. I hope Jesse updates his post or removes it.. I do NOT want my distro on here ..
21 • Rollback (by cor on 2022-03-07 20:30:33 GMT from United States)
To date never had to rollback any program. Using Linux since 2002.
22 • Xero Respect (by Mike S on 2022-03-08 02:28:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
That is the most childish post I have ever seen from a wannabe distribution maintainer. Rather than lambasting Jesse for an honest review you should take on board what he says because RTFM doesn't wash. Release notes, yes sure but not pages and pages of stuff.
Most folk won't bother RTFM ever so it is up to you to address the problems you accuse Jesse of causing in the first place rather than berating someone for not doing as you told them because they are testing blindly as any of us would.
You should have more respect for the Garuda developers too who went through the same learning curve you are following now.
Flinging shade around isn't going to encourage anyone to try out your distribution. It will do exactly the opposite and only goes to prove Jesse right about your attitude issues.
You are lucky your post remains on here to be honest and I'd hazard a guess it was left purely to let everyone know what a lovely person you are.
There are more important things going on in the world than bruised egos. Get a grip and grow up.
23 • One of me is all it takes (by Trihexagonal on 2022-03-08 04:36:29 GMT from United States)
@21 "I am a one man army with one machine, doing my best.. With a review like this, my reputation is in the mud.."
I didn't read the review, don't read most, am not looking for a new distro so won't be trying yours.
However, as owner/operator of the Greatest One Man Show On Earth. If the performance don't go over there's never anybody else around for me to blame it on and I always end up with the dirty jobs nobody else wants to do.
But that's show biz. Learn to roll with the punches.
The Show must go on.
24 • most won't RTFM?? (by dave on 2022-03-08 05:54:04 GMT from United States)
@22 "Most folk won't bother RTFM ever" Really? You're talking about an Arch-based distro. Arch users are traditionally a RTFM crowd. I'm not an Arch user and will not be trying XeroLinux, but I think you're being a little too hard on this guy. He didn't exactly say anything offensive. Before everyone dogpiles on him, maybe it'd be wise to wait for Jesse to respond.
25 • Huh (by Magda on 2022-03-08 06:38:33 GMT from Germany)
@20 If you didn‘t want your project to show up on DistroWatch, why has it been on the waiting list since last December?
Regardless of this, Jesse‘s review is quite fair, when taking into account that the homepage for your project makes it clear that the main goal of XeroLinux is "eye candy" (which, by the way, reminded me of other projects with similar Desktops, such as Hefftor and AlterLinux with a tiny sprinkle of Garuda). Personally, I would question why you don‘t just provide optional customization for existing Linux installations (dotfiles and such), instead of setting up a whole distro that‘s not fundamentally different from others and does show weaknesses under the hood.
Despite relying on eye candy myself via Archcraft, I do understand Jesse‘s feelings regarding your project, so maybe it‘s just you who can‘t accept that "flashy Desktops" are not everyone‘s cup of tea and that the amount of distros with the exact same goal already is pretty significant. Get over yourself, man.
26 • Reviews Ahh eviews (by Flyingalone on 2022-03-08 07:41:50 GMT from Australia)
It really saddens the review that YOU cannot take a critique Jessie is doing ( not a criticism it's a critique Learn THE difference ) the best that can be done with an almost basic approach ( Jesse does try to keep the process simple from a novice POV , not easy when Jesse knows better ) to an install, learn from it Don't chastise the reviewer,
Jesse is trying to help you dude, in future before ( this is not just for you it's for all the Distro wannabes )
= GET a friend or someone you know who has limited knowledge in Linux or computs in general and get them to download verify and install yours or any other Distro ,,
THEN Note the progress and failures over one or two weeks or more using said Distro Inc updates , fresh apps installed , user comfort level = does the Distro OS stay ou t out of the way and let ME get on with I Have to do ! , renaming files , editing MP3's and PNG , JPEG Files umm.
IF you can be just be, be , Just Be and appreciate that some people really do try to help you
( are we a big fragmented family of sorts ) Here at Linux . . .
SO lose the attitude and accept you are a human and all humans are in a constant cycle of learning , My beautiful Granddad Thomas often said "The Day You Don't Learn Is The Day You Find Your Dead ...
Kind regards
FlyingAlone
27 • Reverting package changes (by kksheth on 2022-03-08 09:54:35 GMT from India)
Fedora(DNF) can easily do this. surprising that not covered.
dnf undo history
28 • Wrong way to review (by DarkXero on 2022-03-08 10:45:53 GMT from Lebanon)
@Flyingalone
Instead of using the wrong ISO which is broken, why not grab the right one then post your opinions.. Granted he had issues which many might if they downloaded it back in Jan and installed today after things have changed. That's the nature of a rolling Distro.. It breaks we do our best to fix it..
I have had many issues reported and unlike other distros who take ages, if at all to fix, I try my best to fix right there n then and upload fixed ISOs...
I am very active and always fixing any issues reported. But yeah go on and bash.. I mean everything he mentioned in review was fixed back in Feb.. Now we are at March with more fixes..
I call it an eye candy distro coz I make it look great out the box without bloating it, it's a good balance of looks and functionality.. Emphasis on looks, but still work on functionality as well, equally...
In the end XeroLinux was NEVER meant to be or compete with the big names out there, it's a hobby project, will always be no matter what others think.. It was built for myself first and foremost, sharing it with anyone who shares my love for Linux..
If it's not your cup of tea, no one forcing you to install it. Just please do NOT compare me with Garuda coz they do things their way, they have their own goals I don't.. My only goal here is to satisfy my own needs... I say that clearly on my site...
Anyway, whatever, Xero has its fans, I never wanted it to show up on this site coz I consider it false advertisement ... Anything posted here could be taken the wrong way as some might think it's where mainline distros are found.. I am not that never pretended to be.
With that, I hope Jesse deletes any mention of it from the site.. Whoever decided to suggest it might have not meant anything wrong, I say thanks, but no thanks...
Cya...
29 • Garuda (by Otis on 2022-03-08 12:37:37 GMT from United States)
@20 "..lagfest.." ?? Not on my machines. I got rid of it because it was just not my cup of tea and a bit too tedious in "down tweaking" the beauty for my eyes (I doubt very much that Mr. Kumbhar would come in here and trash Jesse over his critiques and stated observations of his distro). But.. feh.. you're hurt by Jesse's review and by some of the comments in here. Well, you put it out there, bro. I mean, perhaps you feel beyond criticism.. that's a recipe for lifelong anxiety I'd think in the business of crafting distros.
30 • Just a thought.. (by Otis on 2022-03-08 12:49:18 GMT from United States)
...perhaps if we were to summarize Jesse's review of Xero Linux it would be that it seems to be an immature distribution at this point, a state of affairs common in new linux or BSD projects. But that characterization seems accurate given what he experienced with it on his machine, and that seems to also be reflected in the behavior/words of the dev/maintainer of that distro in post @20 here; the immaturity.
31 • Immature ? (by DarkXero on 2022-03-08 13:47:59 GMT from Lebanon)
@Otis
Yes, I agree with that assumption. It will always be immature... As I build it to satisfy MY needs not the needs of others. In my case the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many..
I was convinced to put it out there, when it went against my better judgement.. I am no dev, never pretended to be one. I just use the tools at my disposal and don't try to reinvent the wheel..
I take all kinds of constructive criticism, but here, it's way more, it's like Jesse went out on a vengeance spree.. He did make some good points, but more often than not he took out his frustrations in BOSS mode..
I admit it, right here n now, MOST other custom distros out there are way more advanced than I will ever be.. But advanced does not always mean better...
Anyway, that's my last reply to this... Use it, or don't, everyone has their preferences, as have I, so I do not mind it.. Just do not compare me to anyone or any other distro.. Just take it as its own entity....
Enjoy or don't... The way that review is written, pushes others not to even test in a VM.. Geez.. My problem isn't that no one will use Xero, it's just the way he wrote the Article..
Oh and Xero is not Zero (0) it's Ksero meaning I know in Greek... XeroLinux translates to I know Linux... Just an FYI...
That said, I will be working on a redesign of the site from ground up, I will explain better what Xero actually is clarifying the matter... So there are no wrong expectations...
Now see ya in another life...
32 • Snarky phrase were better avoided. (by nooneatall on 2022-03-08 18:00:32 GMT from United States)
I think the review fair up to last phrase:
"All of this isn't bad, it's just distracting. XeroLinux is a capable, flexible operating system that keeps demanding my attention and trying to help me in ways than make me want to give it a colouring book and send it to another room so I can work in peace."
I'll guess that "colouring book" just popped into mind and the effect wasn't fully considered. Right after stating that XeroLinux is "capable, flexible" it's a pretty deep stab. -- Especially when compared to distros which Jesse can't even get to boot, yet merely states the fact.
Even worse: "don't be childish" is simply infuriating to person who put in much work -- to make XeroLinux as he likes.
To say the least, snark doesn't promote Linux. No sign yet of softening, either.
33 • package manager (by john on 2022-03-08 18:49:27 GMT from Canada)
As a Slackware user, I voted 'no' on package rollback. But in theory, you can revert updated packages to the old one quite easily. All you need to do is save the original package and subsequent packages installed.
IIRC, upgradepkg(8) will replace the installed packages with whatever package you want. So I can revert to an old package without any issues. Even jumping back a few releases. simple.
So I guess I should have voted 'yes' :)
34 • Xero Linux (by Simon Plaistowe on 2022-03-08 20:26:33 GMT from New Zealand)
Here in New Zealand the Xero accounting system is very popular (https://www.xero.com).
If I were a gambling man, I'd bet that if XeroLinux ever becomes popular, they'll be hearing from Xero's lawyers.
35 • On the creation of a new Linux distribution. (by R. Cain on 2022-03-08 23:39:10 GMT from United States)
There have been almost incalculable volumes written about “the problem” with Linux. And always, “the problem” resolves itself into the “problem” of the absolute myriad of Linux “distros”, because Linux distros are so easy to write. Some people (a lot) even go so far as to propose a sophomoric enforcing of collaboration amongst distro developers, so that not so much “...energy is wasted...” in the inevitable duplication of effort.
There is no “problem” with Linux. The current brouhaha is an example of how easy it is to develop a Linux distro by one person, with one machine, simply because it can be done, and the fact that that person wants to pour considerable energies into such an adventure. Whether or not certain decisions made in the creation of this venture are ill-advised will be sorted out and taken care of by “the marketplace”, whatever “the marketplace” is, in the case of Linux distributions.
Only one thing is certain: if one has ‘thin skin’, and one doesn’t make not only reasonable decisions, but ground-breaking decisions---i.e., if one doesn't have something of *real substance* to add to what already exists in the Linux "distroscape"---in the construction of this, the latest and greatest distro ever, one should direct all those not-inconsiderable energies elsewhere. One's ego will end up considerably less bruised.
36 • Xero review (by noise-or-nous on 2022-03-09 00:22:49 GMT from Canada)
@31 The XeroLinux review seems fair - some good points, some bad - but that's the job of a reviewer. Look on the bright side - a lot of ppl will know about your distro now, and may check it out and offer some improvement suggestions. Don't be like some ppl, who are always upset and make lots-a-noise coz they can never get over some issue in life...
37 • Own distro (by Cheker on 2022-03-09 02:12:45 GMT from Portugal)
So to answer one of the opening questions that got lost in the drama, and I was actually curious to see what the comments would look like this week, yes, I intend to at least try to make my own distro someday, based off of LFS. I will probably not publish it though, as I have no intention of maintaining it afterwards - it will just be a learning experience, one of those things you do once in your life, and then never again.
38 • XeroLinux and rolling back package manager (by Andy Figueroa on 2022-03-09 05:05:01 GMT from United States)
It seems like a shame to waste electrons on a one-man hobby distribution with a web site.
Gentoo's portage package manager can easily roll-back package upgrades by masking the updated package version, on the condition that the older version is still in the repository. Often, older version will have been removed from the repository due to serious bugs and/or security issues. In such cases, the user may need to manage the older package in their own local repository.
Also, in most any distribution packages and their versions often do not exist in a vacuum. The upgraded package may have dragged along with it some or even numerous dependencies, so a roll-back may require reversion of more than just the package in question.
With regard to Guix, stating, " I think it's also possible to revert changes with Guix" is the equivalent for "I don't know" and not especially helpful. I mean that as constructive criticism.
39 • Xero ambivalence (by Justme on 2022-03-09 08:49:26 GMT from United States)
Time on my hands and thinking of changing distros, so I gave XeroLinux a try. No problem installing, although with a few more choices than needed. I dislike Vivaldi, so I chose the "browsers" option and ended up with every browser known to man, along with Vivaldi. But it booted and ran fine on VBox.
I understand Jesse's frustration with a desktop that behaves like a kid shouting "Look at me daddy!" while one is trying to do something, but that is easily remedied. A few clicks in Settings stops the jumping, wobbling windows, and a few more clicks on the dock's configuration tames the zooming icons on the dock. Then you are left with a pleasant and very good-looking desktop, set up just like I would set up my own KDE. The translucency seemed fine to me, though they might not be everyone's choice. That's also easily remedied..
But there's this: I downloaded and installed ArcoLinuxB KDE, moved the panel to the top, installed latte-dock, the Layan global theme and the Tela circle icons. After adjusting the translucency effects, I ended up with an almost similar desktop, minus the Kvantum style applications and of course the jumping, wobbling windows. Maybe one hour of my time, but hey! I'm retired. But do these modifications call for a new, separate distro?
40 • Package Managers (by penguinx86 on 2022-03-09 10:46:01 GMT from United States)
I never thought about reverting updates for a package. I am a diehard Synaptic user. If a package has a problem, I simply uninstall it and reinstall it. For stuff that isn't in the repository, I use dpkg occasionally. I'm not sure if stuff installed with dpkg ever gets updates. I don't use apt very much, unless it's some oddball package and there's no other way to install it. I played around with dnf and rpm, but I'm not a big fan of them. They seem more complicated to use than synaptic and dpkg. The only reason I tried dnf and rpm was to study for the LPIC-1 certification exam. Worst case if a package gets totally hosed, I simply reinstall the OS and start over.
41 • personalizing distros (by Otis on 2022-03-09 14:45:44 GMT from United States)
@39 yep I am of the ilk that no matter the distro's stated mission it ends up looking like all the others I've tried. If my screen had a voice it would probably say, "why do you change distros at all, every one of them ends up with a transparent bar at the bottom, no icons on the desktop, your same favorite wallpaper you've been using for decades, a dark theme, roll up instead of maximize when double-clicking the title bar, etc etc and all the same bookmarks in the same browser, Firefox, whether it's Suse, Garuda, GhostBSD, MX, Manjaro, or yes even Windows, you give me the same look and functions.. why are you changing distros?"
Welllllll..... It's fun. And yes, I do fall for the spiel the distros homepages put out there as to its "complete, elegant system out of the box" etc.. Plus, yeah I perceive some sort of ... difference from distro to distro but not much when you get down to it, really...and if what I want to do becomes too much of a chore I happily with an evil grin destroy it and cover it with another one... and along comes ... ???? Linux or BSD.
42 • personalizing distros (by marcos on 2022-03-09 15:09:34 GMT from Brazil)
@41 Otis: "...and if what I want to do becomes too much of a chore I happily with an evil grin destroy it and cover it with another one..."
Bingo, that's it. My primary question: How much work?
But I am less immutable...bookmarks & aliases, yes, but I like some little new decoration, if it is dark of course...
43 • Morphable OS (by Friar Tux on 2022-03-09 16:48:29 GMT from Canada)
@41 (Otis) Here, here!! I became to that same realization a few years ago. So much so that I rarely switch distros anymore. I use one, with a DE, that is easily morphable (as you may already know - Linux Mint/Cinnamon). Now, if I like something in a particular distro and/or DE, I simply recreate it in Mint. So, at the moment, I have a pretty awesome operating system, both visually and practically.
44 • @38 "one-man hobby" (by nooneatall on 2022-03-09 17:29:46 GMT from United States)
"It seems like a shame to waste electrons on a one-man hobby distribution with a web site."
Hmm. I dimly recall some other little hobbyist had something to do with Linux way back... What was the name? I'm sure starts with "Lin..." (opens dictionary to stir memory) Lincoln, Abraham? Lind, Jenny? Linnaeus, Carolus? ... Ah. Linzer torte is oddly close... Oh, right. Linus Torvald! You should look up on Wikipedia before disparaging a "one-man hobby".
If you were attempting sarcasm, doesn't read to me that way, given the other put-downs of XeroDark above. His efforts don't cost you or me any precious "electrons", and again, unlike many, his distro works, and snark DOES NOT HELP Linux.
45 • Xeros review (by Andy Prough on 2022-03-09 19:46:49 GMT from United States)
I thought the review was positive overall, mainly just a few criticisms of looks and desktop effects, but overall sounds like Xeros worked fine and achieved its mission. That's not a bad start, this distro could have a promising future.
I agree with @32, the "coloring book" comment was probably a bit of unnecesarry snark. But overall I don't see anything in the review that would drive away the distro's target audience, which describes itself on its homepage as "an eyecandy lover's wet dream". That kind of user probably won't be offended by the "coloring book" comment at all - might be a bit of a popularity driver for Xeros in fact.
46 • Xeros (by archie on 2022-03-09 22:47:56 GMT from New Zealand)
@44 - a good point. "Just a little hobby project.." now practically runs the world.
And good on the one-man for tackling the creation of his own distro. It is beyond what I would attempt.
In fact, if you are a Linux developer / contributor, please take a moment to receive some love and thanks. Like right now. Thank you.
47 • XeroLinux (by Danny on 2022-03-09 23:18:43 GMT from United States)
Well, I've been running it for 4 or 5 months I guess. I've had a few issues (yes, the maintainer is learning, and I have reported packaging issues like last week), but I know my way around and had no problems.
When Xero appeared on the waiting list, I posted a comment saying 'Don't call it a distro, it's just a desktop design on top of ArcoLinux', but...here we go :)
I appreciate his efforts and I personally like this zing better than the Garuda one, which frankly makes me nervous (all those hot colors).
I also see the comment (and understand it) that many people always end up with the same desktop setup. I umm, truly do want to see something different, I thrive on differences (and lack any artistic talent of my own).
48 • Xero vs Garuda (by Justme on 2022-03-10 02:34:05 GMT from United States)
@41, @42, I may not have been clear. I like the look of the Xero desktop, and it's already set up much the way I would do it. I don't always end up with the same desktop look and wallpaper. I often change DEs, themes, icons, etc, although I tend to stay with dark themes. I do end up with a configuration that makes it easy for the way I prefer to work, but dull it is not. My point is that if I can recreate the Xero desktop look in a short time by installing stuff readily available in the repos, and since looks is Xero's reason for being, is it really a distro, or as @47 says, "just a desktop design"?
Garuda has been mentioned several times, and that's quite different. Admittedly, the "Dragonized" editions are flamboyant. Unfortunately that's all most people see. But Garuda is much more than that. They offer good, buttoned-down, pre-configured editions with anything from Gnome to i3, BSP, Sway, Wayfire, and even a barebones KDE. That's a whole lot more than just a desktop look.
49 • Xero (Linux, not the accounting system) vs Garuda (by Otis on 2022-03-10 14:21:28 GMT from United States)
@48 thank you for bringing that out about the differences. Huge.. Garuda being a robust suite of choices beyond mere looks, as you say, while Xero (not pronounced "zero" as the maintainer says, but ... still... well, anyway..) is as explained in Jesse's review.
50 • Pamac & snap & flatpak (by gicu on 2022-03-10 16:55:39 GMT from Moldova)
Pamac supports both flatpak & snap
you just need to install:
libpamac-snap-plugin
libpamac-flatpak-plugin
> sudo pamac install libpamac-snap-plugin libpamac-flatpak-plugin
or
> sudo pacman -Syu libpamac-snap-plugin libpamac-flatpak-plugin
and then in pamac GUI settings to enable both,
and you will be able to install snaps & flatpaks from pamac UI
p.s:
pamac also supports aur, usually aur plugin is installed alongside pamac
51 • xero ksero (by what's in a name? on 2022-03-10 22:47:10 GMT from Canada)
@34 "if XeroLinux ever becomes popular, they'll be hearing from Xero's lawyers"
Yep, just like Lindows, OpenBeOS, LinuxFX win-like theme, SCO & ReactOS code controversies, etc. Some in the open source community do like to cause unnecessary trouble for themselves. Oh well, k-sero-sero...
Number of Comments: 51
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