Skip to main content

Week 13: linux distros

This week's blog is about different Linux distributions. I'm still quite new to Linux and have experience with pretty much only one distro which is ubuntu, so apologies if I'm not the most accurate. But I have chosen to compare two extremely popular yet almost uncomparably different distributions - Arch and Ubuntu. 

Ubuntu was first released in October of 2004 and it's built on Debian's architecture. The target users for ubuntu are mainly people that are new to Linux or just aren't too interested in the ins and outs of their OS, although it is also used by experts. It is really easy to set up as it comes with a proper installer, unlike Arch, and you don't have to configure every aspect of the system when setting it up. Ubuntu comes with the GNOME desktop environment and a lot of preinstalled applications which make it easy to use and ready to go right after you install it. Although this makes it a lot more bloated compared to a fresh install of Arch. Ubuntu has high support from software vendors, you can download any software that's available for Linux on Ubuntu, easily and safely. Whatsmore, Ubuntu is officially supported by Steam so it makes gaming a lot more stable and easier. Ubuntu has both good and easy to follow documentation and a very welcoming and supportive community, so it's very beginner-friendly.

Arch on the other hand isn't based on Debian or any other distro, it's completely separate. Its initial release was in March of 2002 and it is meant for users who really know the ins and outs of Linux. Installing Arch is more complex than Ubuntu, as you don't have an installer and you can only use command line. It takes quite a lot more time but you can tailor almost every aspect of your system. Arch doesn't come with a graphical desktop although you can install any kind of desktop environment from the terminal-based window. It doesn't come with anything extra preinstalled so you can install whatever you need, unlike with Ubuntu that has default software with it out-of-the-box. As for software for Arch, pretty much everything is available from the Arch User Repository, which is a community-driven repository for Arch users. Compared to Ubuntu, the community plays a lot bigger role with Arch as everything is carried out by the community. Arch's documentation is also very extensive and precise as with Ubuntu.

As you dwell into the world of Linux, it comes quickly evident that there is no one superior distro out there. Linux offers distributions for people of different technical backgrounds and needs, so everyone can find their own. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9: Examples of bad and good HCI

With technology developing rapidly, we find all sorts of new ways to improve our lives and how we interact with technology. With technological innovation, we might witness the creation of something life-changing and spectacular or something that just no one even asked for. I'll try to bring examples of both worlds. Firstly I'd like to bring a good example of HCI - eye-tracking. I recently watched either a video on YouTube or a documentary on Netflix (can't really member which) that showed how eye-tracking technologies have changed the lives of people suffering from illnesses like locked-in syndrome. Locked-in syndrome is a condition where people have full cognitive ability but they are unable to move or speak due to paralysis of voluntary muscles. So usually they can only move their eyes, and that's about it, although some can't even do that. They are literally locked in their bodies unable to move and communicate with others. But thanks to eye-tracking, people that...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wiki Review: The Chinese Social Credit System

For my Wiki review I chose a paper by Bálint Adám, Dominik Kovács, Benedek Matveev, Luca Mizzi and Carlos Rodriguez on The Chinese Social Credit System. I think the topic chosen is really interesting, hence why I chose this article to review, and important at the same time. As the Chinese government is really invading people's privacy, at least in my opinion, by tracking its citizens and companies. It's important to know about the problem so we could avoid this also happening in the western world. All in all, I think the most important aspects of the topic got covered, at least what I was hoping to learn from it while reading the article, and it was presented in a good manner so it was interesting to read. The structure of the article was good, it was organized in a logical way and was divided into subcategories, although they could have been tied a bit better. The viewpoint or angle of the article was for the most part pretty neutral as it should be. Maybe it was a bit to the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 6: Copyleft

Continuing on the topic of copyright issues, this week's post will be about Copyleft and what impact it has on choosing a software license for one's project.  So first of all, what even is Copyleft? Some of you might have heard of this term before in association with open-source software. Well, it's a license for free content/software that determines whether or not the derived works are influenced by the license or not. In contrast to copyright, copyleft ensures that the code/content is freely available for use and modification, whereas copyright more restricts uses.  There are three different grades of copyleft: Strong copyleft - one of the most famous examples is definitely GNU GPL, which was also the first copyleft license. This basically means that the license applies to all derived works and you are obligated to publish the source code if you distribute code that was derived from theirs. Weak copyleft - an example of this would be GNU Lesser General Public License....
Post a Comment
Read more