I keep saying this.
If you’re a sysadmin in charge of a bunch of computers, by all teams use NixOS.
But for personal use? Its easier to install everything by hand every time you reset your laptop (which should be maybe once per year at most) than it is to set up a config file on NixOS.
In traditional distros, apps dependencies are mixed with system files. In atomic distros you use flatpaks which are containerized and don’t see system files.
This is what I mean. I understand you can also install Flatpaks in traditional distros, but most people don’t install only flatpaks.
I followed the path Mint>Fedora>openSUSE.
Wanna know my experience? I had issues daily with screen tearing on mint, even though I had the NVIDIA drivers they were probably too old on Mint for my graphics card. The desktop wouldn’t load, I had errors on starting and on shutting down Mint. I spent more time troubleshooting Mint than working.
I said fuck it and decided to give fedora (actually Universal Blue’s Aurora, which is atomic and fedora-based). It was pure bliss.
Everything just worked out of the box to the point that I was confused as to why everything was working so well. The only thing I had to “learn” was how to use distrobox through BoxBuddy, which took a whopping 30 minutes of research or so.
Now I moved to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and it feels like going back in time. I know my OS is not as secure due to not being atomic, I have to run the command line daily for updates, and the initial setting up would have been intimidating for a beginner. But at least it also hasn’t given me problems yet, unlike what happened with Mint.
So IMO Mint should definitely not be recommended to beginners. The architecture of atomic distros is very familiar to anyone who has a smartphone today, which is practically everyone. You can go to the software store and download Flatpaks as seamlessly as you do on the Google Play or Apple Store. You can even change the apps Permitions using Flatseal. And best of all, you get an OS that is secure, which traditional Linux distros aren’t due to every app having root access by default.
I haven’t done it yet, but when my wife wants to change her laptop, I’ll 100% install a self-maintaining atomic distro for her.
Fair. I think for as long as there is a will to maintain traditional distros (which there is), there will be options.
Hell, people are still keeping Thinkpads T480 alive and relatively secure by making custom libre bootloaders! The F(L)OSS community is awesome.
Flatpaks are better for security though. Containerization is a necessity for any serious device connecting to the internet.
Linux users got way too confortable giving any obscure package they found on AUR root access to their entire device, lol.
No they don’t. OpenSUSE, especially tumbleweed, is way more security-focused than other distros.
It’s a very low-trust default install, and it takes some work to get things through the firewall. Compare that to Fedora where every port above 2025 is open by default.
It’s not my opinion. The distribution architect at SUSE said so in reference to RPMs.
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