this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Why would some software not be available on OpenSUSE? Would it be available on other distros due to a different way they handle packages, or do you mean in comparison to Windows?
openSUSE is rather small, not everything is packaged for it. Arch is the best in terms of software availability, thanks to the AUR.
The only distro that even comes close is NixOS, but I really wouldn't recommend it for beginners. You can explore it in a VM though or maybe at some point actually try it out. It's very very different than other distros though.
Nix (Nixpkgs) actually exceeds the AUR in the number of packages, according to this page.
And the nice thing about it is that you don't even have to be on NixOS to use it - in fact, NixOS came much later. Nix started out as a distro-independent package manager, and can still be used that way, because Nix packages do not interfere with your system's packages.
Ok, let me see if I'm starting to understand.
If something is packaged for a disto, then I can download it using the package manager and it should theoretically be compatible with the distro and the other packages available through the package manager. But if something isn't available via the package manager, I could still find it online and download and install it, but it might cause issues because it hasn't been verified by the people who maintain the distro's package manager accessible repositories. Or I could still install it with flatpaks or snaps and something something container and it should still work? Or might cause compatibility issues?
And you're saying that AUR has more packages that have been verified for arch than OpenSUSE has with Yast?
Did I get all that right?
Correct. The usual issues that you'd find is missing libraries or other package dependencies, because the versions/packages on your OS may not match what the developer complied their generic release package with. Which is why you normally don't download random apps from the web like you'd do on Windows, becuse there's no guarantee that it'd work on your distro (not to mention the security concerns).
Correct, Flatpak/Snap was invented for this very reason, to solve the library mismatch and dependency issues you might get. Flatpak/Snap works by bundling all the necessary dependencies a program might need, so it doesn't matter what your OS has. There are some issues with Flatpaks/Snaps, but these are rare and usually they come about due to the sandboxing (Flatpak/Snaps typically don't have full system access, but "just enough" to get things working. You can manually configure the permissions though if you need to give an app more/specific permissions).
* packaged not verified, but yes being packaged for a particular distro usually implies that it works, but that's not always the case. Btw, YaST is just a system config tool, not a repo. OpenSUSE's default repos do indeed have fewer packages compared to AUR, but that's an unfair comparison since the AUR isn't even enabled by default on Arch, it's something you'll manually need to enable and even get a third-party package manager like yay/paru etc to access it. OpenSUSE also has third-party repos like Packman, and even an online Software Portal that can be used to search for and install package from several official and unofficial repos. So practically speaking you could potentially find everything you need on OpenSUSE (it's hard to get an exact package count), but I guess it's not as easy/practical as using the AUR on Arch.
I've been using openSUSE for a while now and haven't come across any software that was not available for it. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I wouldn't worry about it. It's a pretty good OS in my opinion.