I don’t understand what problem they are meant to solve. If you have a FOSS piece of software, you can install it via the package manager. Or the store, which is just a frontend for the package manager. I see that they are distribution-independent, but the distro maintainers likely already know what’s compatible and what your system needs to install the software. You enjoy that benefit only through the package manager.
If your distro ships broken software because of dependency problems, you don’t need a tool like Flatpak, you need a new distro.
In what way does BSD solve this issue? I would not consider limited number of distributions, small user base, and package count exactly a solution.
That said, if BSD had been released as FOSS a decade earlier I imagine we would all be using BSD not Linux. Would have been an interesting twist of fate.
I think the comment refers to this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD_jail
Not sure. This is a container basically not a distribution format. Not sure how this is different from Linux containers though Linux has a bunch of options. Not sure which is most similar.
Yeah, I think the BSDs lead the way with some things, like jails. But they're not distribution formats. But jailing is part of things like Flatpak. And we have chroots and systemd nspawn. I think I misread the comment and it was more shitposting than anything of substance.
That is the thing about Linux. Linux is so huge and has so many ways of doing things that the days of knowing everything are gone. Same with many of the important tools too. Python has gotten way vast too for example.
This is kind of old people behaviour. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm getting more conservative, having difficulty with things changing, or if things really used to be better… They're different, that's for sure. And I have some valid criticism for some things, too.
Frankly I loved my Commodore 64. My Linux box is better in every measurable way but there was something to simplicity and a time where just making a sound and drawing on the screen with a computer you could afford was quite a thing.
Same with Python. Started using it about 1998. It was simple enough that I learned the language in a day. Now there is so much more. Then add packages for everything these days… lot of the work is understanding packages, venvs, how to deploy, not just opening idle or pywin and writing stuff. Sure Spyder or one of the other IDEs can do static checking, have doc at your fingertips, integrate a debugger, and have a graphical shell where you can do all sorts of stuff. Changes the feel of programming though.
Hehe, that's called nostalgia. I can feel that, too. 😊 Things used to be simpler but that had some appeal to it. And a different vibe. And you had to work hard. That made your achievements more rewarding than spending your time fighting with complex buildchains.
BSD is FOSS, unless you are an idealogue.
BSD does not have distributions, those don't exist.
BSD totally has distributions. Some versions of BSD are separate operating systems from each other, not distros, but things like GhostBSD or MidnightBSD are absolutely FreeBSD based distros.
Wrong, guess again. Read the websites.
You mean like where immediately on the front page of the GhostBSD website it says that it's built on top of FreeBSD code? Just because they don't use the term distro doesn't mean they're anything different.
You stuck in the cult of Linux and projecting your mentality onto other things without deciphering each on their technical marits. You look at all software in Linux terminology rather than making a distinction to articulate correct phrasing in a cohesive manner.
I call a spade a spade. If you can't handle two binary compatible versions of BSD being called distros just because it's a Linux term even though by every possible definition of that term that doesn't include the word "Linux" they absolutely are distros, that's your problem.
It is now. It took most of the 90s for that to sort out plus a big lawsuite. The FSF started in the early 80s and Linux in the early 90s. Not sure BSD was available free to just anyone in 1991 when Linux became a thing.
Linux is a bad attemot at copying UNIX. BSD comes from the orginal UNIX of the 70's. BSD was a summary of the patches, fixes, and other developents that was applied to the Unix codebase and then after the lawsuit took the original UNIX patches and started BSD 4.4-lite