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1 • Rolling version of Ubuntu (by Vinfall on 2023-05-15 01:27:25 GMT from Hong Kong)
Actually Ubuntu takes packages from Debian Unstable (Ubuntu LTS based on Debian Testing) according to Ubuntu Packaging Guide (try searching sid (Debian Unstable codename) or unstable), which makes me question the need for a rolling version of Ubuntu. Taking a step further, people could have been using Debian testing/unstable if they want rolling packages. Nowadays "barebone" Debian is quite user-friendly, not the old days when you have to copy many files by hand and follow a set of instructions posted on wherever.
2 • Rhino (by DaveW on 2023-05-15 01:38:53 GMT from United States)
@Jesse The Rhino distro sounds intereesting. Please consider a follow-up review when it is out of beta. Also running the 'apt-cache rdepends --installed libcurl4 | uniq' command on LinuxMint Mate results in many duplicate lines; piping the result into 'uniq' eliminates that unpleasantness.
3 • Rolling... rolling... (by Friar Tux on 2023-05-15 02:09:48 GMT from Canada)
I voted that I would like to use a rolling release. I DON'T, but I would love to considering how they are supposed to work. My problem is that all the rolling releases I have tested so far break on the second, or third, update/upgrade. Without fail. Right now, I'm using a LTS, Ubuntu-based distro that has had no "lost-time" issues in seven years. If I could find a rolling distro with the same stability as that, I would jump to it. Sadly, as yet, I can only dream, but I will be giving Rhino a try.
4 • Rolling Ubuntu (by uz64 on 2023-05-15 02:56:30 GMT from United States)
I think it's a good idea, actually... if they could strike a balance between stability (ie. the system not breaking) and not having to back up and do a major upgrade once a year. 9 months is a joke for a support cycle, and as it is right now LTS is really the only sane way to run it. If they did it right, monthly image refreshes and small (but more frequent) updates might fit perfectly with what Ubuntu wants to be.
5 • Rolling Ubuntu (by Andy Prough on 2023-05-15 03:08:21 GMT from Switzerland)
I find it amusing that I often hear people say they would love a "stable yet rolling" distribution, not realizing that's what PCLinuxOS and Void already provide.
Instead of creating a rolling Ubuntu, which is really just beta testing from the Ubuntu development repo [which is already beta testing from the Debian unstable and experimental repos] - maybe some people should just use PCLinuxOS and Void if stable+rolling is what they want.
6 • rolling (by Jay on 2023-05-15 04:06:36 GMT from Netherlands)
The rolling choice is current versus stable; like security and convenience, they're a continuum and that means a sweet spot that's a compromise. For a workstation (that needs to be current), I feel a rolling release is critical.
I settled on a a Manjaro Stable based Arch variant that's worked out reasonably well: Mabox. I'd probably have been similarly pleased with Endeavour or Manjaro itself - my needs are intermediate and they cover a wide range of interests, few of which are mainstream.
Is Mabox perfect? No, but I'd like to think it's getting there. It's capable of tiling and it's simple to configure (or reconfigure) and while Mabox's partly focused on UI esthetics (which I have limited interest in), it's done a good job of almost all the tasks I've thrown at it.
For me, that's close enough to a win to be comfortable.
7 • Displaying reverse dependencies on Arch Linux (by Jeff P. on 2023-05-15 04:13:57 GMT from United States)
"expac" is a very small (~34 kb) program for working with pacman packages. Well worth installing if you don't have it already (sudo pacman -S expac). It allows you to query pacman's local and remote databases using printf-style strings.
So instead of typing:
pacman -Sii zlib | grep "Required By"
You can just do:
expac -S %N zlib
(Or replace -S with -Q to consider only installed packages)
Lots of other cool things you can do with this tool. For example, to find which installed packages are taking the most space:
expac '%m %n' | sort -n
8 • Rolling distros (by Friar Tux on 2023-05-15 04:34:49 GMT from Canada)
@5 (Andy) Sorry, but PCLinuxOS and Void are two of the worst offenders next to Manjaro. As I said, literally ALL the rolling distros have broken on the second or third update/upgrade, these two as well. So far, as @4 (uz64) said, "LTS is really the only sane way to run".
9 • Rollling Releases (by Bobbie Sellers on 2023-05-15 05:58:03 GMT from United States)
Well I do not use Ubuntu because I started out on Mandriva 2006. It was not a Rolling Release and was always troublesome when a new version came out about twice yearly.
I briefly ran Mageia and it was about the same as Mandriva(which gone out of business).
I settled with PCLinuxOS and it occasionally barfed back in 2014 when a new update came
along. But since 2016 when I got back to PCLinuxOS I have not had problems with updates
other people might be having problems but the PCLinuxOS Users Forum gives very good
advice. Linux 6.3.2 is the latest kernel update and we are at Plasma 5.27.5. Users
Forum gives prompt response to the problems usually. You have the attention of the
packager and many of the people who make the programs work.
So if you have a Rolling Release and any problems it is probably because of the staff.
10 • What do you think of a rolling Ubuntu edition? (by Head_on_a_Stick on 2023-05-15 06:01:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
Given the recent performance of Ubuntu in Distrowatch's reviews it will be interesting to see just how much more broken Ubuntu can get. Looks like Manjaro might finally have some competition :-)
@1: Debian testing/unstable is a development branch rather than a rolling release, it is designed to break and so probably isn't suitable for production use. Debian stable plus backports works well though.
11 • Chaos by design (by Trihexagonal on 2023-05-15 06:59:22 GMT from United States)
Some geeked out website lauded Ubuntu for its "ease of use" and among "the top choices for people who are getting started with Linux."
So having an Ubuntu rolling release makes perfect sense to me. Given they've seen the error of their ways and are trying to come back from dumbing down the user base repenting with trial by fire.
I put together this box using Kali 2021.3 GNU/Linux rolling release, upgrading the build approximately twice a week to 2023.1 as the current version. I enjoy using the rolling release, and apt, and have never had an issue with upgrading that broke the build beyond repair.
But I mix ports and pkg with FreeBSD and can work through any problems likely to arise from dong so. Skills I did not develop overnight and few people new to Linux are going to possess. Bravo.
Get out the popcorn, a train wreck in in the works.
12 • @8 Manjaro rolling release breakages?! (by Woodstock69 on 2023-05-15 08:06:03 GMT from Australia)
I've been using Manjaro for 4+ years now and I've NEVER had issues updating it and it breaking. Strange how some people have issues and others don't. *[scratching head]*
13 • rolling linux distribution (by sidro on 2023-05-15 08:48:06 GMT from Romania)
@tux
For me OpenSUSE Tumbleweed just works.
OpenSUSE is the only solution that provide efficient way of snapshots to rollback.
After 2 years of openSUSE I must say is perfect form me, without breaks.
14 • @5 and @8 Void Linux (by Hoos on 2023-05-15 09:34:25 GMT from Singapore)
I'm going to have to agree with @5 on Void here. I'm surprised that @Friar Tux was able to break Void after 2 or 3 updates.
My Void installation has been running without issue for 5-6 years. I can accumulate 2 to 3 months of updates and proceed to upgrade my system without any problems. I carry out updates as and when I feel like it without a care and without taking any precautions. I don't have to check a forum for update warnings first (note: Void has a reddit page) or make backups prior to any updates.
15 • Rolling Ubuntu? (by Kazlu on 2023-05-15 09:36:45 GMT from France)
I personally have no use case that would be fulfilled with a rolling Ubuntu, but if some people like the idea, please go ahead.
I have reserved as to the pertinence of the idea. Ubuntu is mostly geared towards people looking for an easy to use system, with little knowledge of the underlying system, and let's add gamers in the target audience (whose Linux knowledge may vary).
For the first category of users, a rolling release may not be the best idea. By nature, a rolling distro less stable than a, well, *stable* distro. Sooner or later it will break, not necessarily fatally, but small perks will happen every now and then due to an update. In that case, you better have a recovering scenario ready. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and Linux Mint manage backup and recovery pretty well (even though Mint is not a rolling release) and guide the user *at install time or just after* to set up a recovery scenario. Once you recovered from an issue, you have to either solve it or hold updates hoping the next one will not break anything. So you need to know what you're doing and users that want things to just work by clicking on an update button will not know that. Moreover, there is a difference between using a rolling distro that uses repositories *designed* with a rolling distro in mind (Arch, Manjaro, OpenSUSE Tumbleween, etc.), and one that uses development repositories (Rhino, Debian untsable, etc.). The latter is more likely to break or not work as intended.
For gamers, well, I do not know how games will work on a moving base. That might be a good way to get recent hardware to work though, since you can update drivers as soon as an improvement is available.
My personal experience that may explain my point of view: I spent some time with Manjaro about a decade ago. I was pretty pleased with the performance of the OS and the freshness of the available software (although Firefox updates should not have been withheld for 2 weeks every time like other packages in my opinion, I wish there was a short cut for security updates). However, every now and then, I had a problem that needed caring. The one I remember the most is that after a while, my desktop froze and even though the mouse worked and I was able to open a few menus, almost no application would launch. Rebooting did not solve anything. I eventually learned that packages stored in cache but not being cleaned up ended up filling my system partition after weeks of updates. I learned to clear cache while keeping up to 3 versions of each packages through one command and never had this problem again. But every small problem like that demanded some digging to be solved. It was a great way to learn about Linux! But eventually as my life evolved I considered I did not have enough spare time to dedicate to that, especially since problems can happen at any time. I now use MX Linux and upgrade only when necessary (change of computer or Debian base reaching EOL) through a fresh install, that I can do whenever I set up some spare time to do it. So no, I don't really need fresh software, therefore I am enjoying the stable end of the spectrum!
16 • rolling release breakdowns (by crayola-eater on 2023-05-15 11:24:44 GMT from United States)
@12
In my mind, all it takes is the timing of your upgrade. Should you perform an upgrade on you system in the middle of a repro upgrade of an item with multiple dependencies, the odds of a breakage go way up.
17 • Rolling releasse (by James on 2023-05-15 11:57:44 GMT from United States)
I run both, but have had the most trouble with rolling releases. I only use the system updater and only update when it suggests I do, but I still run into problems. The last one was my Bluetooth quit working on an update on Parrot. This is where it gets hairy, trying to fix these kinds of problems. Make the wrong install to fix the problem and you can break the system. Right now I have been running Sparky and it has been doing good so far, but I have had problems with Sparky in the past when it was in newer development.
18 • rolling version (by Carlos Felipe on 2023-05-15 12:53:14 GMT from Brazil)
I would like a 5 year old LTS version of Fedora. I can't install Fedora on a college machine and pray that a good soul will update it when the need arises.
19 • @12 (by Head_on_a_Stick on 2023-05-15 13:18:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
Sorry, I was just trolling. I've never even used Manjaro :-P
20 • Rhino Linux (by stefan on 2023-05-15 14:18:31 GMT from United States)
Anyone remember Rhino Linux for the Playstation 2? It was a Debian distro.
21 • Rhino Linux future development (by AJStrong on 2023-05-15 16:31:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Hey all, Rhino Linux project lead here.
I want to start by saying I wish you did this review next week, as we are dropping a major UX and UI overhaul. We’ve made our own custom XFCE Desktop Experience called Unicorn with features similar to spotlight search, an app grid and Exposè/Virtual desktops dashboard. We plan to convert this into a full desktop environment based on xfwm4-wayland when time and development resources permit.
Aside from that, arguably another great feature is that it’s powered by Pacstall.
Great review, we plan to hopefully have our first (non-beta) disk images released in June.
Many thanks,
AJ - Project Lead for Rhino Linux.
22 • Rolling releases (by Will on 2023-05-15 16:44:15 GMT from United States)
Ugh. Point releases, please. I don't care for rolling releases. I find them to have more bugs, more uncertainty, and they give me more headaches (arch, tumbleweed, etc). So hard for mere mortals to troubleshoot issues involving dependencies.
If you like bleeding edge, go for rolling releases. For the stability minded, it's a nightmare.
23 • Casto's Comparing OPNsense and PfSense (by Garrett on 2023-05-15 15:51:20 GMT from United States)
Casto's blog review comparing these two projects was really in-depth and I appreciate the effort that went into it. One of the most common questions asked when comparing alternatives like this is "what's different?". I'd like to see more of this style of review.
24 • Rolling Ubuntu (by bittermann on 2023-05-15 17:00:18 GMT from United States)
A rolling release of Ubuntu would be great for a lot of uses but in practice it has more bugs and issues. Manjaro seems to do it well but its Arch based and not Debian if that is your thing.
25 • Great idea (by alwan on 2023-05-15 17:46:09 GMT from Indonesia)
Actually, you can treat ubuntu "regular" release as rolling.
Edit the sources.list and you will have a newest ubuntu version regularly.
26 • @12 Manjaro (by Alex on 2023-05-15 18:19:41 GMT from United States)
Don't update your Manjaro or Arch for that matter for six months or longer and then try to. I guarantee you'll have problems. I have many computers and some I just don't use that often anymore. Those that sit idle for some time without regular maintenance of the software ALWAYS have problems in my experience. I like the idea of rolling releases but I think it is true enough that they require more care from the operator.
27 • Rolling releases (by bluep on 2023-05-15 19:28:16 GMT from United States)
I think each big distro should have a rolling release version.
Personally, I've been using PCLinuxOS for over a year and never had issues with apt-get dist-upgrade. It never gave me a black screen after an update.
28 • Rolling Releases (by NormanF on 2023-05-15 19:19:27 GMT from United States)
The middle way is to convert Ubuntu* LTS into a semi-rolling release through adding backports to your sources list.
That way you can get the latest desktop version without risk of breakage.
Or stick with point releases like Fedora and openSUSE.
29 • missing Opinion Poll choice.... (by Steve on 2023-05-15 20:18:26 GMT from United States)
You forgot the option of not using Ubuntu for any reason, let alone any other forks of Debian or, for that matter, the far too many forks of Ubuntu.
30 • Rolling in the Void (by nsp0323 on 2023-05-15 20:47:46 GMT from Sweden)
@16 wrong, on Void you'd get a warning that packages are being re-build and upgrade would abort. No harm done and you can try a few hours/days later. My Void install is from October 2017 and never broke.
31 • Rolling Ubuntu (by Otis on 2023-05-15 21:30:59 GMT from United States)
Well, not all rolling distros are the same, and not all of them can even be described in the same breath let alone as a general category of linux. I used to think otherwise, then I looked back on my off and on nightmares with some and satisfaction with others.
Some roll slowly, after a lot of testing.. so they are almost point releases in that respect. Easy to like those.
Others plow through right away and yep they break the system often.
Read through the various distro home site descriptions and look for phrases that smack of "cutting edge" and stay away. Conversely, if you see "rolling release after thorough testing" or some such, you may have a very different experience.
32 • That's how we roll (by Raul Enre Lisi on 2023-05-16 02:05:36 GMT from United States)
The reason all of you fixed-release lovers have fewer issues is because by the time you get the updates, we rolling-release users have already found and reported the bugs, giving the developers a heads-up on fixing them. We do the testing and you reap the benefits.
You're welcome.
33 • Rolling Ubuntu (by cor on 2023-05-16 02:22:11 GMT from United States)
I don't see a need for a rolling Ubuntu. I'm happy with the way Ubuntu LTS. I've been using since 16.04 with no issues.
34 • Rolling distro (by Saleem Khan on 2023-05-16 04:27:24 GMT from Pakistan)
Arch Linux is the only rolling distro I would ever recommend and those who say arch breaks I would love to know how did they manage to break it because my arch Linux is still working from it's time of installation since 2009 . You will definitely break arch Linux or in that matter any distro if you don't know what you are doing with it.
My second rolling distro is PCLinuxOS which I have been using since it's version 0.92 and the only time I had to do a fresh install it when the development team asked for a fresh install due to major changes in its core packages else I am unable to break this distro as well unless I intentionally plan to run # rm -rf / on it .
Third rolling distro I use is PLD Linux for past 5 years , it works as fine as day one and though it is tricky to update it but it is resilient enough to break even if you try to because it won't let update to break it unless you know how you are updating it.
And the last rolling distro I am using for past one year is Joborun , again just like any distro if you don't want to break it it won't .
You can use any rolling distro if you are aware of the basics of using a rolling distro and follow the wiki or else you can easily break an LTS version of Ubuntu as well.
35 • Rolling releases @34 (by kc1di on 2023-05-16 10:23:28 GMT from United States)
Just want to say that I don't use many rolling releases, not because the break but because of personal preference and familiarity with debian derivities.
But there is one exception I as @34 use PCLinuxOS and have had an install of it on one machine for 4+ years with no major problems. It's maybe not considered a true rolling release but it works.
36 • Ubuntu (by RetiredIT on 2023-05-16 11:07:53 GMT from United States)
I think it would be nice if Ubuntu just went away. After all they haven't put out a really good release since Maverick 10.10. I would not even shed a single tear!
37 • Ubuntu (by RetiredIT on 2023-05-16 11:11:44 GMT from United States)
Oh, I forgot to mention that Dedoimedo hasn't reviewed anything related to Ubuntu for the past 9 years since 2014. That should tell you something!
38 • Ubuntu reviews (by Jesse on 2023-05-16 11:28:50 GMT from Canada)
@37 It tells me you have not read Dedimedo's reviews. He reviewed Ubuntu in 2017 and 2018. Has reviewed the Kubuntu edition fairly consistently for the past five years.
We link to these reviews on our information pages for each Ubuntu flavour.
39 • @ 36 (by James on 2023-05-16 11:46:44 GMT from United States)
"I think it would be nice if Ubuntu just went away."
There are literally thousands of people that disagree with you. If you don't like it, don't use it. There are many distributions I have used I didn't like or found lacking, but I never disparage them to others.
40 • @39 James: (by dragonmouth on 2023-05-16 12:26:37 GMT from United States)
Easier said than done. Unfortunately, the tech writers and pundits are IN LOVE with Ubuntu. Even though Ubuntu is down on DistroWatch distro list and hasn't been anywhere near the top since Mint took over, most of them still push it to the exclusion of other distros. Just look at all the "X Best Linux Distros" articles. At least 5 or 6 distros mentioned in every article are Ubuntu and/or its derivatives. Every once in a while, they mention Fedora or Arch. Based on their prevalent mention in articles, one would think *buntu == Linux.
Ever since Woody Woodward stopped the development of SimplyMEPIS, I have been using PCLinuxOS which, IMO, is as easy to learn and use as any of the *buntus, has a community as active, if not more so, than Ubuntu and does not try to emulate Windows.
41 • Rhino (by gplcoder on 2023-05-16 13:28:31 GMT from Canada)
Just tried Rhino Linux on a Dell Precision (this laptop has dual video, Intel integrated and discrete Nvidia Quuadro, every Linux distro except Mint has failed to present the video properly on the laptop panel and external hdmi video). Well Rhino failed the video test, the video did display on the laptop panel correctly at hd but there is no external video (just like mx), the external was detected in the display panel but nothing happens when I try to activate the external video. I told Rhino that I wanted Flatpak and apt but no snap and that installed properly. I asked for dos/mbr partitions with a bios boot and I got gpt partitions on a bios boot which caused the dreaded 'invalid partition table' boot error. Fortunately, Mint did the same thing to me so I know how to deal with it. Overall, the OS did install and update correctly. I am going to change the laptop to an old Dell Optiplex with a slow hdd and Intel chipset including video and try the video test again. Most distros pass this test no sweat. The idea here is a very long-term rolling installation just like my Gentoo very long-term test.
42 • @33 (by stefan on 2023-05-16 16:44:28 GMT from United States)
Some people actually need the latest and greatest packages. I know a lot of people love the LTS releases and do not like to upgrade.
43 • @8 - claim of PCLinuxOS "breaking" (by Andy Prough on 2023-05-16 18:26:05 GMT from United States)
>"@5 (Andy) Sorry, but PCLinuxOS and Void are two of the worst offenders next to Manjaro. As I said, literally ALL the rolling distros have broken on the second or third update/upgrade, these two as well."
That's a very odd thing to say without giving any details. What is your definition of "broken"? Are you saying that PCLinuxOS became un-bootable after an update? Because that's hard to believe, given how good its reputation is for stability.
I used Void for about a year and a half recently, and I had one single package that didn't work right after one update. The system was not "broken" at all, just the one piece of software would not do what I normally wanted it to, so I used an earlier version. But this happens on all distros - the upstream developers of some program sometimes put out a new release that isn't working the way users expect.
44 • Rolling (by Reyfer on 2023-05-16 18:26:06 GMT from Venezuela)
I don't know what Rolling Releases are....I just use Debian Sid since 2019 and I have had no issues, just a constant flow of up to date packages
45 • PCLinuxOS (by Friar Tux on 2023-05-16 22:25:37 GMT from Canada)
@43 (Andy) My definition of broken is quite simple - if it doesn't do want it is supposed to do, it is broken. I keep a record of all the distros I test. Between 2016 and 2023, I have tested PCLinuxOS 14 times. Of those 14 times, 12 did not install due to some error or missing file. Twice it installed. Both times, after the second update (about 1 1/2 weeks' use - I update every Friday), it stopped working. What was wrong isn't important to me. IT STOPPED WORKING, meaning I could not get stuff done. If I have to constantly mess about to keep my OS working then that OS is not for me. The one I'm presently using is an LTS Debian/Ubuntu derivative that has not glitched in seven years. Now, to me, THAT is an OS/distro worth having.
As for Void, I tried it once but it stopped working after the second update - about three weeks later. So... broken.
46 • PCLinuxOS - a solid rolling Distro for me (by M.Z. on 2023-05-16 23:15:01 GMT from United States)
Funny, I'm in the camp that got at least a few good years out of a PCLinuxOS install. I think I ran it for about 5 years with only one significant issue. As they say, your millage may vary, but it was very solid for me until the hardware was mostly unusable.
47 • Rolling Distro (by Pat Menendez on 2023-05-17 01:12:37 GMT from Canada)
I've tried Manjaro and other Rolling release distros over the years to disastrous results. Garuda looked interesting so I tried it and I love it! Fast. Stable. As up to date as you can get. There are updates almost every day but I have gone to just letting it go till I get a popup that the system is out of date and then manually update the system. The update is never less than 1.3 gig often close to 2 gig. (I have a lot of software installed). I've had the same installations for over a year and not one hint of an issue with an update! It works flawlessly on my seriously overclocked 8th gen and this antique Dell laptop with an old 3rd gen CPU. For safety it does have Snapper or TimeShift which are in the grub should an update bork the system. After years of seeing failure after failure with rolling releases, it's nice to finally see it working perfectly. I have not doubt whatsoever that Void is great. I tried it (and others in that direction) and liked it but it didn't have the software I want / need or new versions. Sometimes you want a bit more than just stability. I had years of good service with PCLinuxOS starting in 2007 too. I've got Antix installed and still running flawlessly after 5 years on an old 2nd gen K with an overclock. For me the next best after Garuda is Rosa. Completely different concepts but the best in their respective class for big plasma desktop.
48 • @18 • rolling version (by Carlos Felipe from Brazil) (by Cubehead on 2023-05-17 11:33:13 GMT from Netherlands)
"I would like a 5 year old LTS version of Fedora. I can't install Fedora on a college machine and pray that a good soul will update it when the need arises."
While there is no 5-year-support LTS version of Fedora, there is a 10-year-support LTS version of RHEL.
Yes, it is somewhat harder to set it up, but one has to do it only once over the lifespan of the PC.
You can set it and forget it. Literaly. No breaking extensions, if it must have Windows touch.
Gnome and Gnome-classic ("Mate") are preinstalled, as well as are X-Org and Wayland.
Applications can be installed either from the repository (old) or as Flatpak (new).
That way, one can easily have the old and the newest application versions simultaneously.
49 • @25 • Great idea (by alwan from Indonesia) (by Cubehead on 2023-05-17 11:44:11 GMT from Netherlands)
The best thing is that one doesn't even have to edit anything.
One can just open the update settings, and in the third tab, at the bottom, there is a menu choice between LTS or 6-month versions.
50 • @28 • Rolling Releases (by NormanF from United States) (by Cubehead on 2023-05-17 11:59:01 GMT from Netherlands)
Or one just lets it upgrade every 6 months.
One click in the update settings.
51 • @45 FriarTux: (by dragonmouth on 2023-05-17 12:21:02 GMT from United States)
"Of those 14 times, 12 did not install due to some error or missing file. "
From reading your posts, I would say that it is something you are doing or your hardware rather than then the rolling distros. I know it is anecdotal but, over the years, I have installed and used most of the versions of PCLOS, form Minimal to Full Monty. Never had a hiccup or a glitch, either installing or updating.
Be that as it may, if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work. Time to find another distro. Between you, me and the four walls, I don't use any *buntu for the same reason you do not use rolling release distros. Apparently me/my hardware and *buntus are not sympatico. There are too many other distros to get hung up on any particular one.
52 • @34 • Rolling distro (by Saleem Khan from Pakistan) (by Cubehead on 2023-05-17 12:27:44 GMT from Netherlands)
"Arch Linux is the only rolling distro I would ever recommend and those who say arch breaks I would love to know how did they manage to break it because my arch Linux is still working from it's time of installation since 2009. You will definitely break arch Linux or in that matter any distro if you don't know what you are doing with it."
Most people I know don't really know what they do, and many Arch users will need something from AUR from time to time. Most Arch users are Manjaro or simmilar users.
Then one leaves the PC lying around for the next 3 years because one has 5 others. Three years later, one starts the PC again, and it works fine—unless one tries to update it.
After the restart, nothing will work as it is supposed to. Fedora would update and upgrade, and you could continue where you left off.
Another thing is the "system breaks" understanding. I don't know a single person who cares about OS. They care about their applications.
If an application doesn't work properly after the latest update, it is the system that broke, as the application one needs is the "system" and not the underlying system.
Last but not least, even if and when everything works fine but only a system appearance theme breaks, it's again the system that broke—nobody cares for OS or the system library that caused it, or a standards change, or... but the theme that one used last 3 years and which one liked isn't supported anymore and it has some ugly shades and is now broken—just as an example for easier understanding.
* Please do not try to persuade me that I'm wrong here, because I don't care. I'm not trying to engage in a discussion on rolling vs. LTS; I'm simply stating where the most real-life problems come from. I see people coming for support every day, and I see how they tick. Your agreement or disagreement won't change their mind or what I have to endure. ;)
53 • @42 (by stefan from United States) (by Cubehead on 2023-05-17 12:46:56 GMT from Netherlands)
"Some people actually need the latest and greatest packages. I know a lot of people love the LTS releases and do not like to upgrade."
That's exactly why people invented Flatpak and Snap.
54 • Rolling distros&Rhino (by grraf on 2023-05-17 09:10:04 GMT from Romania)
Why anyone would want a rolling ubuntu distro is beyond me, beside its miriad of PPA's and an amalgam of non native flat&snap packs you are just inviting even more chaos and destruction.
I'm also an arch linux user been one since way back around when widows Vista reared its ugly head and all data on my partitions got corrupted, made me swear to never touch anything M$ made again...
In all my years using arch I have only found myself glaring at a black screen a few times when there was a nvidia driver f'up(was easy enough to just chroot to my install and get rid of said buggy driver) other then that a few hickups with networkmanager and my adsl connection(quickly solved via temporary downgrading 1-3 libs) but those were a few isolated instances across years of use(and 3PCs later(i happen to have gaming as a hobby) beside those all was smooth sailing and got to enjoy early access to latest techs&driver feature(heck even now i'm writing this from my new gaming pc sporting intel's recent Arc770 gpu).
In my experience only folks that struggle with rolling distro issues are the ones that either dip into the AuR or prematurely try to go and toy around with new kernels/drivers without having the necessary knowledge to revert those changes in case smth goes wrong or have the common sense of holding on to a stable kernel branch in addition to whatever newer kernel they wish to fiddle with...other then that there is the whole overreliance on the GUI tools some 'newb frendly rolling distros' provide(that will inevitably fail/not report/prompt for some changes in configuration files) to do system wide updates instead of just sipping a cup of tea and watching the output of their sudo pacman -Syyu in a terminal for a few minutes like any sane person would normally do in order to save themselves any future hedaches.
Would I recommend rolling distros ?! without a doubt its the way to go, that is if you are an experienced enough user capable of chrooting to install/remove a kernel/driver via the terminal in case problems do happen to arise once every blue moon(it isn't as if live usb sticks for distro don't exist to allow you to just connect to the internet do some research on yr current issue)
55 • Rolling VS stable+Flatpaks (by Kazlu on 2023-05-17 13:23:55 GMT from France)
@52 and @53 are spot on here.
For a lot of users, and especially people who do not really know how a computer works but just want to use it (typically the kind of people who would go for Ubuntu), having a stable base with up-to-date Flatpak/Snap package is the way to go. They will not see the difference between that and a rolling distro, as long as themes and fonts are correctly handled. And the risk of having anything break is far lower.
Still not what I would do, but many people would.
Then again, as long as there are people interested in a rolling Ubuntu, please carry on, it's great if that is wh
56 • (by Kazlu on 2023-05-17 14:43:54 GMT from France)
...it's great if that is what you want.
(Sorry I slipped)
57 • ROLLING RELEASES (by NICK VLAHOS on 2023-05-17 17:06:59 GMT from United States)
"If it isn't "BROKEN" Don't "FIX" it !!
58 • Ubuntu ubiquity (by JeffC on 2023-05-17 23:50:50 GMT from United States)
@40
A couple of years ago I did a search for Linux and a problem I was working on; every result was for Ubuntu.
I then did the same search but for Debian and the problem; the results were for Debian and Arch and Fedora and....
59 • Ubuntu, rolling and whatever (by El Guapo on 2023-05-18 02:21:11 GMT from United States)
Nothing avant garde about Ubuntu 'rolling". Tried it back in 2015-16 on Ubuntu 15.10.
https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ubuntu-rolling-release/
Tried it again when Rhino Remix came out to see what the hoopla was about. Same same. Apt would upgrade and add a caveat at the end: You asked for "devel" we re giving you "kinetic". (Kinetic was the next release at the time.) No big issues. Gnome would show a popup once in a while about something crashing, but it could be closed and ignored. I suppose you can call it 'rolling" but it's just as easy to wait until the next release is coming out, change /etc/apt/sources.list and go on from there. I've done that several time with no injuries. Need also to update ant PPA's. I'm perfectly happy with Apt and Synaptic, so I have no hankering for rpk or Nala. I can see the usefulness of rpk for some who use different packages, but I run Ubuntu unsnapped and have a measly one flatpak and one appimage. Everything else is .deb except Firefox which is on the tarball with a .desktop file for the menu. Contrary to DW's and others' experiences, Ubuntu has been solid, installing and running, for many years. I would run Mint, but don't like the desktops offered.
Rolling vs Fixed: From all the posts, I glean that some people love rolling and some prefer fixed, and ne'er the twain shall meet. I've rolled with very few problems. Last, ran EndeavourOS for over a year. Nice. But I don't need the latest and don't really need to be constantly updating. I have four installs, and some only run occasionally, which is not ideal for rolling. To each his own.
60 • M$ Ubuntu! (by Larry on 2023-05-18 04:03:59 GMT from Germany)
I prefer Debian unstable (sid). It's the closest to "rolling" as I want and it's very enjoyable to use.
IMO, the only way I see Ubuntu rolling is into Microsoft's loving arms.
61 • Pacnews (and pacsaves?) (by Cheker on 2023-05-18 18:19:39 GMT from Portugal)
I suspect a large portion of the users whose Arch installations bork after a handful of updates don't look at their pacnews and don't merge those changes. If you ignore them, given enough time, your system will break. It's something to be aware of when you're using an Arch distro.
Number of Comments: 61
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Emmabuntüs is a desktop Linux distribution with editions based on Debian's Stable branch with both the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments available. It strives to be beginner-friendly and reasonably light on resources so that it can be used on older computers. It also includes many modern features, such as large number of pre-configured programs for everyday use, dockbar for launching applications, easy installation of non-free software and media codecs, and quick setup through automated scripts. In addition, this distribution addresses accessibility issues, for both installation and day to day usage, and includes a large set of applications supporting visually impaired people. The distribution supports English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages.
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