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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Make a virtual webcam device (by Noel on 2022-07-11 01:46:39 GMT from United States)
Why does Jesse call a v4l2loopback device "fake"? Perhaps "virtual" (or "emulated") is better, like a virtual PDF printer or a loopback network interface 127.0.0.1. From the point of view of software everything is real as long as it implements the interface of "real" phenomena.
Doesn't the "-r" switch of ffmpeg set fps for video streaming like it does for output video files? If it doesn't then the v4l2loopback kernel module should have a mechanism to block the producer thread as appropriate if it's writing too fast.
2 • Webcam (by Jesse on 2022-07-11 02:04:43 GMT from Canada)
@1: "Why does Jesse call a v4l2loopback device "fake"?"
Because it's not real. There is no physical webcam. It's just software pretending a webcam exists. The opposite of real is fake. Sure, you could call it emulated, I suppose, but fake works just as well. Would you call a cubic zirconia an emulated diamond?
3 • Nix (by Charlie on 2022-07-11 03:18:57 GMT from Hong Kong)
Not sure what happened to Jesse, but my Nix OS experience of upgrading from 21.04 to 22.05 is extremely smooth, and the system and package manager is smooth and normal as it's in the past.
Maybe it's the problem of the graphical livecd? It looks like the LiveCD copies files from the live system instead of making a new system as what we are doing with text mode install.
Btw the whole concept of Nix is really cool and fast, with one file to edit (in text mode) then the whole system finishes its install, and two lines of command the system finishes upgrade. It's a bit tricky since it does not use the traditional file system layout, but for installation and upgrade it truly saves a lot of time
4 • fake vs genuine (parody) (by manda on 2022-07-11 03:46:15 GMT from New Zealand)
emulated diamond - a great marketing term! :)
Cubic zirconia is also known as "sensible" as opposed to the De Beers diamond hype, which turns out to be the genuine fake.
5 • nixos (by john on 2022-07-11 08:07:01 GMT from United Kingdom)
Perhaps another choice of "do not use but would like to"
As sometimes we do not have the knowledge to use.
6 • nixos (by qwerty99 on 2022-07-11 12:53:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
@5 Another good option/choice would be OMDB (Over my dead body). nixos seems to be another case of poor quality reaching through into production; not really clear why Distrowatch wastes all of our time on this.
7 • Review (by dragonmouth on 2022-07-11 13:03:39 GMT from United States)
IOW, Nix OS is not ready for prime time.
8 • Reliability of NixOS (by mkingsley on 2022-07-11 13:45:45 GMT from United States)
In my experience, NixOS has been one of the more reliable distros for some of the more specialized setups like GPU to VM passthrough, or OCI or docker swarms. One of the nice things of having the entire system setup from a configuration file (including containers!) is versioning and upgrades are made that much more simple.
While I would not advise NixOS to anyone looking to try linux for a basic desktop system, someone looking for a distro to run servers, or containers, or wanting the ability to try new software and immediately roll back the changes, NixOS would be my go-to reccomendation.
9 • debian release (by tomaso on 2022-07-11 15:04:01 GMT from United States)
Kudos to Debian for their new updated release. Great support for 5 years. Commitment. Products that are used by serious users and developers. For years. Seriously reliable products for servers and desktop. This is choice the way it should be done.
10 • @9 (by Joe on 2022-07-11 15:53:46 GMT from Ecuador)
@9 Well said, 100% agreed. Kudos to Debian for just staying the course and keeping the drama to a minimum. When we talk about the legendary stability of Debian I would say that above all else we're referring to its predictability and reliability for long-term planning, because we have a pretty good idea of what Debian will look like in 5 years from now (hint: More or less like it is today. ;-) And that's a good thing in my opinion).
11 • my trouble with nixos (by rustam on 2022-07-11 15:58:36 GMT from Moldova)
for me nix seemed too complicated,
I tried it on another distro(kubuntu), and got it to install some packages..
But had trouble uninstalling a package.
seems to me that nix installed all my packages into some folder(or generation - i dunno the term nix is using)
and because of that I couldn't uninstall the package without uninstalling all other packages i needed
so for me nix seemed very hard to use, if you need advanced knowledge for simple things.
I didn't read the docs, but I used usual unix staff like 'command --help' and 'man command'
and still didn't catch how to use nix correctly.
So for me nix was an over engineered monster.
I still didn't figure out how to install a package in such a way that it dependencies shouldn't be touched when you want to delete it.
12 • my trouble with nixos (by rustam on 2022-07-11 16:43:12 GMT from Moldova)
Also,
I couldn't install a proprietary package from nix proprietary packages repo,
I couldn't figure it out, why nix didn't see things from this repo, even if I added the repo the way docs says,
IMHO It is way more complicated than with RPMFusion for fedora & co, or packman for opensuse & co.
so nix may be a cool dutch university research project, which has a lot of features,
but it is clearly too complicated for gorillas like me who have exp in classic package managers (apt, pacman ^_^, zypper, xbps, apk) and who use only man & --help, and don't read "NIX documentation" and expect that package management on linux should be easy...
13 • Nixos (by Hans Strijards on 2022-07-11 17:58:20 GMT from Netherlands)
I run have Nixos happily for years on end, without trouble. Shows how different experiences can be. It is one of the most stable installs compared to other distros. I use it for desktop purposes. It is one of the few distro's I can install on my particular laptop (hp compaq 6710b) without hassle. I use the iso without desktop environment, though, and edit the configuration.nix. I think calamares deserves some time to mature on Nixos. Jesse's review will help. There is no reason tot trash Nixos all at once.
14 • nixos (by dave on 2022-07-11 18:20:09 GMT from United States)
hard requirement for systemd? no thanks
15 • NixOS (by Terryn Serge on 2022-07-11 19:31:01 GMT from Belgium)
I downloaded the virtualbox kde image.
It's running perfect and very smooth. (8192GB ram, 4 cores)
The icon that don't work on the panel : nix-env -i discover and it will work.
It's a nice system :)
16 • Wanna try (by Arve on 2022-07-12 03:37:15 GMT from Sweden)
As a good nerd, I'd like to try using Nix, but I'm having a pretty big struggle trying to install it (Mint 20)... Meh, deb/apt-get does work as well as I need it to.
17 • NixOS, @15 NixOS VM (by Justme on 2022-07-12 04:35:07 GMT from United States)
I also tried the VM, and as you point out, installing Discover enables the icon, but that's it. Discover is useless since it's calling and not finding packagekit and associated services.
I'm always willing to invest time and effort in learning, but there must be a benefit. I've grown fond of apt over the years, and can usually fix problems with little effort. I don't see any improvement in Nix to warrant the learning curve.
18 • It's still fake to me (by CS on 2022-07-12 14:54:53 GMT from United States)
Fun Q+A this week.
According to another guide I looked up "Create Fake Webcam Streams" the -re switch causes the video to be read at native framerate which might make it play to the fake webcam in real time. Fun thing to try some day.
19 • Keep 32-bit Computers Running (by Roy on 2022-07-13 21:10:33 GMT from Canada)
Would Distrowatch please make a point of listing Linux distributions that still have a dedicated 32-bit OS in development so people can keep 32-bit computers running?
Thanking you in advance...
20 • 32-bit machines (by Jesse on 2022-07-13 21:15:14 GMT from Canada)
@19: We do provide easy access to a list of 32-bit distributions: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?architecture=i686#simple
21 • Please don't use nix-env (by hi there on 2022-07-13 21:42:33 GMT from Ukraine)
If you're using nix-env to install software, you're doing it wrong and there is no point in using nix package manager in this case. Just stick with apt/yum/pacman/whatever instead.
What nix is actually good at is _declarative_ package management and system configuration.
For nix on non-NixOS or macOS it's best to use https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/ to install and configure your packages. You write desired packages and configuration in your `home.nix` and run `home-manager switch` to apply your changes. That's it. You can copy your `home.nix` to another machine, run `home-manager switch` and get the same configured software. Mind blowing!
For NixOS it's even easier! You already have pre-generated `configuration.nix`. If you want your package to be in PATH, you add it to `environment.systemPackages`, run `nixos-rebuild switch` and boom, it's installed! You remove package from the list, run `nixos-rebuild switch` and it's gone, like it was never there.
You want to configure nginx with letsencrypt certificate? Easy! Add this to your `configuration.nix` and run `nixos-rebuild switch`:
```nix
{
services.nginx.enable = true;
services.nginx.virtualHosts."myhost.org" = {
addSSL = true;
enableACME = true;
root = "/var/www/myhost.org";
};
}
```
That's it! Your website is up and running with self-updating SSL certificate!
Here are some learning resources that I can recommend:
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/half-a-presentation-i-had-in-my-company-about-nixos/16467 (video link in the first post)
https://linktr.ee/nixos
https://github.com/mikeroyal/NixOS-Guide
22 • NixOS (by Qwert on 2022-07-14 17:05:14 GMT from United States)
How much research do I need to do to find out how install nix's grub to a dos extended partition.. Install error outs on grub install to /dev/sda1.
Thanks for any help you can provide...
23 • @21 (by Justin on 2022-07-14 18:17:22 GMT from United States)
Thanks for your comment. I want to try this with a Raspberry Pi. NixOS has some ARM support, and this might be easier than doing things like buildroot and TC for appliance applications or stripping down "lite" images for other distros.
Number of Comments: 23
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| Archives |
| • Ussye 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
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MirOS BSD
MirOS was an operating system based on OpenBSD and synchronised with the ongoing development of its parent. The most important differences between OpenBSD and MirOS include a completely rewritten bootloader and boot manager, a slim base system without NIS, Kerberos, BIND and i18n, binary security updates for stable releases, and current versions of the GNU developer toolchain.
Status: Discontinued
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