in reply to ColdWater

Docker and podman aren't too bad nowadays I don't think assuming you're not running something huge

(Podman is another tool that does the same thing as docker)

Docker and podman containers are basically like throwaway mini-vms that contain one application to ensure it will always run no matter where so long as the machine you're running them on can run docker

They can run CLI stuff just fine, I'm not sure about desktop apps someone smarter than me will probably tell you about that

This entry was edited (6 months ago)
in reply to ColdWater

Docker and Podman are both free. Podman is the lighter weight, more FOSS, also slightly more DIY option, they are intercompatible - I work on systems for spacecraft and Podman is what we use on those because it's lighter weight. If you want to run something in docker, ChatGPT is actually pretty good at talking you through the specific setup (at least that's been my experience).
in reply to Nanook

I know this isn't Reddit, but r/peopleliveincities... When 90% of desktop users use Windows, it's going to both be the most targeted by malware developers and have the highest chance of being operated by someone who doesn't understand enough about computers to recognize that the shiny calculator app that just popped up after visiting a very legit Nigerian prince's crowdfunding page probably shouldn't need admin access.

And speaking of user error, I'm willing to bet that basic security practices like using full disk encryption, SecureBoot, some MAC layer (provided by antivirus on Windows, AppArmor/SELinux on Linux) and regularly applying security updates are way more common over in the Windows land - if I was in a situation where there was one completely randomly selected Windows PC and one also completely randomly selected Linux PC, and my life depended on being able to gain access to either of them (some kind of really messed up Saw trap? idk), I would definitely bet my life on the Linux one being misconfigured.

Don't get me wrong, Linux can make for a very secure and private OS, but most installs most definitely cannot be described as such - just look at the popularity of random unverified PPAs on Ubuntu derivatives or AUR packages on Arch.

in reply to Markaos

@Markaos Well I have a dual boot system, Linux / Windows 10, and have for decades, other versions of Windows but dual boot none-the less. The old days before grub used to chain-load from the windows boot-loader (ick) but over those years I've probably had to reload windows owing to malware I could not excise at least once a year. I've never had to do this, ever, with Linux.

Linux reshared this.

in reply to Nanook

do some research or something jesus lmao. Linux servers, on average, are much higher profile entities to target, typically has more eyes watching them for problems, and technically literate people administrating them. meanwhile your typical windows machine is used by non technical, every day users who do very little proper security practices and threat mitigations.

you get a better ROI targeting windows users than you do, Linux users.

in reply to ColdWater

IIRC that's the whole point of flatpak, snap and appimage

Docker can probably do it too, distrobox puts a useful wrapper on that

Nix does that kind of, nix packages aren't isolated in that they can't access resources on your system but all dependencies are stored in the nix store, hashed and isolated from eachother, and wiped when you collect garbage

This entry was edited (6 months ago)
in reply to ColdWater

Both strange and not, tbh. On one hand, I understand the sentiment; on the other hand, installing more software with its own dependencies to isolate electron's dependencies, and potentially installing twice those libs both electron and something else on your system depend on seems counterproductive (leaving the security benefits of containerization/sandboxing out of the question here, tho).
in reply to ColdWater

One way or another, if you want to run an application you are gonna need its dependencies (the key is the name)... they may be bundled into an appimage or come as part of flatpak ruintime, or be confined inside a container, or live in the nix store, but they will "bloat" your system anyway.

Learn how to cleanup your system (ie. uninstall all packages that are not needed by others that have been requested explicitly) and live a happy life. Only bother with other solutions if the software (or version) you need isn't available for your distro.

in reply to naeap

@naeap As long as it remains the easiest distro for me to get from initial setup to mangled the way I want it to work I'll stick with Ubuntu. It still tends to be more up to date than most other releases save Fedora but I do not care for the Redhat approach at all, they are rather like Windows in trying to force you to do it there way, "thou shall use LDAP and not NIS" for example. I don't like distros that think I should change my whole organization to suit their needs. Yea at some point I probably will switch to LDAP but will do it on my own terms in my own time not dictated by a distribution vendor. It is rather trivial for me to excise snap from Ubuntu, a lot more work to hack NIS into a system that doesn't natively support it.

Linux reshared this.

in reply to ColdWater

Yea, I have a Manjaro box also, which is based up on Arch with some ugliness added to it, and yes, I have installed and run Arch before so I am familiar, only problem I've run into is every time I go to do an update one or more apps won't compile and I end up having to remove 35 programs and re-installing to fix. There are a lot of things to like about it though, particularly having packages that are just tar files makes them very easy to extract / modify / create. But not a great system if you just need to get things done.
in reply to ColdWater

It depends on your usecase. We need more detail regarding what application (gui/cui/open source/proprietary/custom) you are trying to use

  • Check if the application you want to use exists as snap/flatpak/appimage.
  • If it exists, install the application as per their standard operating mechansim
  • Once used, just remove them. Your original system libs are untouched

If the application doesn't exist in those platforms, it's a different story. You might need to use distrobox or docker. Don't use nix because it's overkill for what you want to do.

This entry was edited (6 months ago)