Joshua Strobl Steps Down From The Solus Project

[ermo]

That makes a lot more sense. Using your example, even for English users where we're normally covered by default it'd be nice if the system was smart enough to know my language and automatically install my chosen language's pack when I go to install dictionary and thesaurus packages. Just the other day I was doing that and Pamac popped up a dependency prompt for me to pick my language while I'm thinking "you know damn well it's en_US and you should automagically pick that". Seems like subscribing to "English" or "Italian" would have saved that slight annoyance.

FWIW, I'm not sure what word or phrase would be best to describe that kind of system. Intelligent Dependency Management? Heck, how do you even make that sound cool?

I don't envy the packaging team. It sounds like subscriptions means breaking packages down into smaller packages which will bring its share of dependency fun.

The general idea is to write file glob patterns that automagically split locales out into locale sub-packages, which are then marked with their language code in a consistent manner and known to be linked to the parent package. The goal of the entire exercise (and I'm not just referring to locales) is to try to avoid making the packager do work that can be automagically inferred. Obviously, this will not always be possible, but we're going to try anyway.

And yes, there's obviously scope for (pre-)selecting subscriptions at install-time according to e.g. selected UI language (and even installed keyboard layouts for instance).

We shall see. It's certainly still early days.

[Mario Junior]

A meme distro to another meme distro. Great!

[arQon]

I'll see what we can do about explaining subscriptions better moving forward.

Well, you could start by not having some incompetent marketing assclown attempt to give it a name that already has a well-defined, well-known meaning that is unrelated. That would help a lot more than sticking with that mistake and writing a blog post trying to justify why it "really does make sense, because, y'know, disruptive n'shit bro".

gl with the project, regardless.

[You-]

Its funny people think there was some validity to the "technical arguments" made by Strobhl in announcing the port to EFL. It has been a couple of months already but I dont think they have gotten started, but I really want to follow the development of this. I suspect it will be popcorn-worthy.

As for the technical arguments:

GTK4: Ok you were subclassing because composing new widgets was too dificult? OK, we made composing new widgets simple.
Strobl: but but subclassing? I want to subclass everything!
Everyone: /Facepalm

As for excluding libhandy - that can be a valid choice as long as you either replace the dependency, OR you dont ship outdated versions of teh software. Solus depended on the software though, so they are kept at severely outdated versions, potentially with exposed public security vulnerabilities.

When a gnome developer created an account to explain that libhandy wasn't just for mobile, he got a 17 year ban. That and similar threads were hilarious.

As for serpentOS, raise your hand if you think the lead developer will still be there at this point next year. He likes starting new distribution projects. "Linux from Scratch. Again." and then shortly after, he ghosts them. takes a few months break and starts again.

Seems like a genius coder, but totally not someone you would want to depend on.

[sb56637]

What would be great is a DE that doesn't get in your way like Gnome because it's made for such a simplistic workflow you're stuck in your workflow about 5 minutes in when you actually need to do stuff, but is not as bloated as KDE. Some middle ground with all the "necessary" options, but not trying to brew coffee either. Willing to listen to the most requested features to accomodate the multitude of workfklows out there without forcing one or having to maintain hundreds either.

This need is definitely fulfilled in Cinnamon, in my opinion. It just fits like a glove, with very sane defaults, very configurable if desired but not necessary, lots of convenience features but no gimmicks.

[sb56637]

You mean Gtk applications? Nothing is in their feature list that absolutely needs Gnome.

The Budgie desktop is entirely built on top of Gnome. Power management, bluetooth... it even has two control panels, one to configure things specific to the Budgie panels, and the other is the Gnome control panel.

[NateHubbard]

l18n/i10n

Thanks for confusing me there. I had to double check that.

Also, it's a shame seeing so many people putting down these minor distros.
Personally, I like seeing new things. Without them we'd be stuck with the same old crap forever.

[Mez']

The Budgie desktop is entirely built on top of Gnome. Power management, bluetooth... it even has two control panels, one to configure things specific to the Budgie panels, and the other is the Gnome control panel.

Actually, it is not entirely built on top of Gnome, and it is not a fork, Budgie was written from scratch.

It only relies on some bits of Gnome, the main ones being Mutter and gnome-settings-daemon (which you mentioned). And GTK apps of course, but those can be more easily replaced.

[ermo]

Well, you could start by not having some incompetent marketing assclown attempt to give it a name that already has a well-defined, well-known meaning that is unrelated. That would help a lot more than sticking with that mistake and writing a blog post trying to justify why it "really does make sense, because, y'know, disruptive n'shit bro".

gl with the project, regardless.

The funny thing is that the term was proposed by someone on the team who is anything but into marketing. In fact, I think he just might even get a get a good laugh out of your remarks.

Thanks for the well wishes.

[STiAT]

I dont see the point bashing on Josh or Solus here. Solus is a good and stable distro. The team is small, probably too small, but they get it done. If it has no future they it will go down and nobody will care in the end.

You can like or dislike Josh, but he did a lot fot Budgie and a lot for Solus, in his free time which should be appreciated.

For SerpentOS, well .. too early to say anything about it. And I do not really understand what their focus will be for the disribution. But I'll follow its development. I think the approach to package management could use innovation, if they get it "right" or make things better is to be seen.