• LalSalaamComrade@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    When I can use transactional package managers which has more advantages than Flatpak, then I don’t see the point of using them.

    • they’re reproducible - I don’t have to worry about re-configuring my desktop all the time
    • they’re sandboxed, just like Flatpak.
    • no issues with theming, everything works out of the box.
    • takes much lesser size (if you have lots of generations, you might want to configure so that it preserves the last five to ten generations)
    • one package manager to rule them all
    • functional languages are cool because they’re deterministic

    Also the Nix folks are coming with a beginner-friendly alternative called the Snow package manager for Snowflake Linux, which is supposed to be a simpler NixOS.

    • This would be really nice. I try to maintain packages for the software I write, and Nix completely defeated me. The learning curve for package building was steep, and for casual contribution (I don’t use Nix myself), I had neither the bandwidth nor interest to climb it.

      It looks like things have improved for my language of choice since I last looked at it - there appears to be a convenience builder now - so I may try again.

    • jackpot@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      whats a transactional package manager and wjats the snow package manager (/ can i use jt on limux mint when it comes out)

      • LalSalaamComrade@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It can be really hard to explain this here, so you might want to spin a Boxes session and try that out.

        But in this context, transaction is similar to the database concept of performing every action to completion. Every action is clubbed together as as singular action - meaning that updating app A, B and C is treated as one universal action. Let’s say if a process fails, like the updation of some app G, then it cancels the entire operation and stays in it’s previous state. So theoretically, you should have a Linux distro that will never fail.

        Snowflake OS is already out, but in beta. I wouldn’t recommend using it for now. Maybe inside a VM.