Post B2DyT2EoVs4yFuH2K8 by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
(DIR) More posts by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
(DIR) Post #B2DF7oCszOu6iisOy8 by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-12T15:17:53Z
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I haven't ever maintained a blog, but since Linux Journal folded and I no longer work at Purism, I miss having an outlet for longer-form thoughts.Over the last five years or so, I've observed a Renaissance in innovation on the Linux desktop that hearkens back to the Golden Era of the desktop from the mid-1990s into the aughts.In this (pretty long, likely controversial) post, I talk through the Golden Era, Dark Ages, Renaissance, and what's next.#linux https://kylerank.in/blog/linux-desktop-renaissance.html
(DIR) Post #B2DGunTSbNjQakYIcq by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-12T15:37:57Z
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@patrick There is certainly still a place for curation and recommendation (Bazaar for instance has a feature to allow platforms to recommend certain software), but at least for desktop apps I wonder how much quality control is part of the packaging process in distributions, outside of just ensuring software compatibility with the rest of the system (which isn't necessary if it's in a container).
(DIR) Post #B2DH6TKdJgrJb1zTNo by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-12T15:40:05Z
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@patrick I suspect what you may mean is that the process of getting packaged by a distro in the first place is the quality control, as they act as a gatekeeper to what software is valuable enough to be made available to users. I think that constraint might be causing more harm than good.
(DIR) Post #B2DyT2EoVs4yFuH2K8 by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-12T23:45:57Z
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@patrick yeah I wonder just how often distro package maintainers audit source code changes in general, not just for security-relevant changes which they are not likely able to detect anyway (if we are talking intentionally malicious changes that would attempt to obfuscate)
(DIR) Post #B2E2aQ66bNOo69yf3o by zachdecook@social.librem.one
2026-01-13T00:32:04Z
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@kyle @patrick I contribute to the projects that I package. I often recognize other distribution package maintainers (whose names I know through repology) contributing too ... often to 'minor'/point releases.The mentality is "this bug bugs me, I want it fixed before releasing to my [distro's] users", which may result in carrying a downstream patch which is quickly upstreamed, and sometimes encouraging upstream to release a point release with the fix.
(DIR) Post #B2EFNpiZKjb7CLISw4 by MrB123@mastodon.social
2026-01-13T02:55:27Z
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@kyle I enjoyed the history and perspective. As a user of Universal Blue's Aurora for the "home" laptop, I concur that there seems to be a renaissance in the desktop experience.
(DIR) Post #B2EcanaqqE0hJrq3Bw by ikkeT@mementomori.social
2026-01-13T07:15:29Z
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@kyle thanks, nice that you started blogging and with such an opening article! History wrapped nicely. I agree, it's super interesting times to work around Linux built systems. It is really again at the phase something cool is popping up constantly, with such easyness. Where it used to be cool to be guru to get stuff workig, now it's recognized effortless is the new cool. BR, long time LJ reader đ
(DIR) Post #B2EzADIjRzAQB4ehoO by janvlug@mastodon.social
2026-01-13T11:28:26Z
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@kyle Thanks for this nice article!I've a remark though. You write: "... a company that sold laptops and a phone that shipped with a fully free-software Linux OS, PureOS, based on Debian."Actually @purism still sells #Linux laptops and phones like the #Librem5 and #LibertyPhone:https://shop.puri.sm/
(DIR) Post #B2F1ai3nuWXj0sR2Vk by dottorblaster@fosstodon.org
2026-01-13T11:55:38Z
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@kyle @janvlug I really love the idea and I wanna see Linux thrive even more. I just hope youâre right :â)
(DIR) Post #B2FBNdcc6Jsf1Z7fU0 by lwriemen@social.librem.one
2026-01-13T13:45:18Z
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@kyle It's kind of funny how you state that apt helped solve dependency management issues, but a new hope is being presented in flat packaging, what I would call extra-distro dependency avoidance at a storage cost.
(DIR) Post #B2FIUGCeGkaC6A5BL6 by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-13T15:04:59Z
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@janvlug @purism It's true, they are still in business, I guess my mind was in the past tense personally since I was writing about my past, and that slipped into the tense in that sentence.
(DIR) Post #B2FInrJ2XqcwfpPwUC by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-13T15:08:33Z
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@lwriemen At the time apt came about, we did have a way to essentially "vendor" dependencies with software via static linking, but storage was too precious so dynamic libraries were preferred. The hope that containers presents is in no longer having to factor in system software dependencies in your code (dependencies that are often out of date). It comes at some storage cost, but for desktop systems storage isn't nearly at the kind of premium anymore.
(DIR) Post #B2FJpXVdDiX1o9fkES by janvlug@mastodon.social
2026-01-13T15:20:00Z
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@kyle I can understand that :-) Nice that you updated the sentence!
(DIR) Post #B2FK2VJigKj4m2HaHw by lwriemen@social.librem.one
2026-01-13T15:22:22Z
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@kyle Flatpak isn't exactly a container. I guess you could call it a single app container. If the storage issue ever needs solved, we'll see how "DLL hell" gets handled on Linux.
(DIR) Post #B2FKs1VWl3zRNaN78C by lwriemen@social.librem.one
2026-01-13T15:31:40Z
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@kyle I deleted my reply to this, because I realized it was somewhat ignorance of Flatpak based. I know Flatpak isn't a great solution where storage has higher costs.I would think that Qubes might still have a storage and security advantage. Thoughts on Qubes vs. Bluefin?
(DIR) Post #B2FfXmbyWtEkQTZskC by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-13T19:23:20Z
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@lwriemen Qubes definitely has a security advantage, because it is using hardware virtualization features to isolate software from each other, and with containers you are relying on software controls enforced by the kernel (if enabled by tools like bubblewrap within the container to begin with, some Flatpaks are pretty locked down, otherâs less so).
(DIR) Post #B2FfmyD3gr1ejzAHgm by kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in
2026-01-13T19:26:06Z
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@lwriemen Space savings is a tougher call. Even if you only have a single VM for everything, you still need that space for that base image. Base images inside flatpaks are likely smaller than a base Qubes Debian/Fedora VM.If the base VM image doesnât have the system libraries a particular desktop app needs, and other desktop apps in a different Qube uses some of the same libraries, I would think both of those layers on top of the base VM would have dupe packages in them. So a toss-up there.