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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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What's the difference between package manager and why are there so many? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Are they so different that it's justified to have so many different distributions? So far I guess that different package manager are the reason that divides the linux community. One may be on KDE and one on GNOME but they can use each other's packages but usually you are bound to one manager

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also, bit part of Portage (Gentoo "emerge") is being able to 'flag out' parts of the package out (or in) to the compilation.

Let's say you want to not have telemetry in your packages. So you set '-telemetry' globally, and each package that has known telemetry parts will not compile locally - so it can not be turned on (unless it's hidden really well).

Or you want to use pulseaudio? You can flag it globally, or for specific packages. That way you can influence software you install without knowing much about anything build-related - the work is done by the repository maintainers.

They won't be able to pry Gentoo from my cold dead hands. Arch, Nix/Guix can suck it, all my money goes to the Gentoo

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From what I've heard compiling locally also allows for hardware optimizations specific to your system, though that may be false, as I've never used gentoo.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, but such optimizations won't usually matter a lot. I have no hard data on that, but would still prefer having smaller binaries from removing unnecessary BS to having CPU optimizations.

Fortunately I got both ^^ And the system feels a lot more responsive to Ubuntu, but I never ran any benchmarks to prove that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah the smaller binaries is a big part too. I bet it feels like having your system hand-crafted just for you

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It does. Unfortunately I don't spend as much time on my PC lately.

Also I still use binary blobs like Steam.