this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Linux
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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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It's hardly a Linux problem that other OSs have done things in an inferior way.
The "inferior way" being precisely the kind of walled garden Linux apologist types typically shit their pants and smear in on their faces about. But it's fine because it's UBUNTU's walled garden! Can't be using anything Ubuntu doesn't allow!
A dozen incompatible distribution standards, with shit not even compiled for most of them, relying on the distro for updates that can run several versions behind because the newest version isn't compatible with THEIR ecosystem...
But App Store bad. Windows Store bad. Play Store bad.
Piss on that hypocrisy.
A walled garden doesn’t offer you the freedom to leave it. If you’re unhappy with Ubuntu, you can use a bajillion other distros and get the same software elsewhere. If you preserve your home directory and distro hop then nothing changes for you and your preferences/dot files carry over. I jumped between three distros at some point and my custom GNOME setup (extensions and all) survived through it with minor changes. Heck. Even Thunderbird kept my profile active and I never had to re-add all my email credentials from scratch.
Can you do that with Windows or MacOS?
Yes, I can in fact download programs that aren't on the Windows or Mac app stores. Are you even paying attention here?
But you can't completely switch your system with a different version managed by different people while preserving your home folder.
You can't choose the windows you get, Microsoft chooses for you
I'm sorry, are we talking about shit that users do or are we talking about masturbatory sysadmin jizzcup filler? Because it seems like you're not paying attention to the conversation, which is that Ubuntu doesn't even let users install .deb packages through the fucking package manager.
It's not hard to switch to another Linux distro. Many, like mint, even let you separate the home partition with the grafical installer too.
You sound like Slackware is the distro for you. There's no walled garden. In fact there isn't a garden at all, you go out into the wilderness and forage, but first you have to learn how to make the plants edible.
The issue was that those users didn't understand what they were doing and managed to mess up their systems. If you know what you're doing then installing debs like regular could be totally fine.