this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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Call me an old man. But I like when things are stable. I don't like starting my computer, and the software was updated to a new version, and some features disappeared or changed in behavior. This is why I hate the web where people update software right under my nose! With no control from my side.
Have ever checked if you checked how maintained are the dependencies/libraries of your favorite software? It's a nightmare as well. The distro is not making anything worse.
First, the work is not often duplicated. The first maintainer to package will usually upstream patches which make packaging easy. Packagers will look how other distros packagers packaged the app they're trying to package.
Also the duplication only happen a few time. Ubuntu just pulled almost all of their packages from Debian Sid. Same with RHEL/CentOS and Fedora. And so on, and so on
Also you're overestimating how hard packaging is, most of the time, it's scripted. (golang modules in debian, are imported in an almost fully automated way)
You know what distros bring?