[ubuntu-studio-devel] Feature Spec Discussion: Desktop Agnostic

[Len Ovens]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015, Len Ovens wrote:

> On Sun, 26 Apr 2015, lukefromdc at hushmail.com wrote:
>
>> In addition to the desktop issue, there is another problem on the 
>> horizon:
>> Ubuntu is beginning to transition away from using the Debian 
>> packaging
>> format for the "snappy" system.
>> 
>> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-15.10-DEB-To-Snap
>> 
>> For now that will be limited to the "desktop-next" spin, but I do 
>> not know
>> their plans for the future. Word is the snappy images will 
>> themselves be
>> built from debian packages, then distributed in the new format with 
>> a
>> base image that is read-only and always the same. If all of the 
>> media
>
> Does not sound good for sure, some things to think about though:
> - where is upstart?
> - what have we heard about MIR?
> - How will this work with ubuntuserver?
> - Even if the ISO is a brick, when it gets installed it is files.
> - perhaps deb sw is not meant to be installed, but if the original
> 	is made that way, debs should still work.
> - there are others, bt repacing deb with blobs is an uphill climb

The link above gives less info than needed. after doing some more 
research... I think it will depend on the dev. It is still possible to 
lean on the system libs and not include them. I expect packages from 
debian will continue to do so. I think ubuntu is trying to apeal to 
comercial develoment. Make it easy and acceptable for people to release 
blobs for money. I do not know how this works with GPL, with debs, all 
packages have a SRC package... I do not see how someone would DL a src 
package of this or in what form.

>> I know a lot of energy is going into the whole phone/convergence 
>> thing,
>
> phones are back to small scale ram/diskspace platform realities. 
> shared libs have to be part of that. Bloat will not work.

This is still true. Snappy is made for thin computers/low ram stuff. It 
can not be bloated and work. Snappy is a result of ubuntu's work on touch 
and seems much more android like. I wonder, should it make it to the 
normal desktops how long it will take someone to put deb on top ;)

> don't think anyone is ready to dl 2gig security updates every 2 days,

Further reading says that won't happen, it is more zsync like, just 
replacing the parts of the packages that have changed.

It seems that ubuntu is listening to enterprise customers who want 
something easy (read cheap) to maintain. This seems to separate each task 
more so that one can not be a risk to another. I am of two minds, in some 
ways I miss slackware and the roll your own kinds of things like sysv 
init. On the other hand ubuntu has been much easier to keep up and even 
make changes to.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net