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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Noob Question Thread: Ask Any Questions About Linux! (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I thought I'll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!

I'll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (37 children)

Why are debian-based systems still so popular for desktop usage? The lack of package updates creates a lot of unnecessary issues which were already fixed by the devs.

Newer (not bleeding edge) packages have verifiably less issues, e.g. when comparing the packages of a Debian and Fedora distro.

That's why I don't recommend Mint

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Because people have the opposite experience and outlook from what you wrote.

I’m one of those people.

I’m surprised no one brought up the xz thing.

Debian specifically targeted by complex and nuanced multi prong attack involving social engineering and very good obfuscation. Defeated because stable (12 stable, mind you, not even 11 which is still in lots of use) was so slow that the attack was found in unstable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If that is a good tradeoff for you, old/broken packages but more trusted, then that's okay. Btw, the xz backdoor was found so quickly it didn't even ship to most distros in use, except for Debian Sid and Arch I think

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I see it as a fantastic trade off. There are some packages I use that need to be more up to date than stable repos and I either install them from different repos or in a different way.

And arch never even had the whole backdoor because they built from source and didn’t include the poison pill binary component from the attacker.

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