From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It's very nice to not have a dozen different versions of the same distro to parse through and figure out that are simply the same distro with a different DE. Moreover, very few of them offer this many options.
Cachy could be doing a better job explaining what the user is looking at here and who each of these is for. Pretty easy to sum up in 1-2 sentences...
this is just calamares, the most used installer across the span of linux distros.
on the question of why this approach vs dedicated desktop environment installs, well, ive always wondered about the pros and cons on that too. one pro is that with a dedicated DE iso you dont need an internet connection to install it. otherwise im not sure why people would choose one or the other.
That's a good reason. I didn't realize this one did.
It’s not 100% true that you need an internet connection…your install media will just be unnecessarily huge since 100% of users will only be using part of it. And, you’ll have to pay to host and distribute it, most for no reason, every time.
It would be cool if they did make an “everything” image for offline installs though; as preparation when when they take away the internet…
Debian has this (well, for sources at least) and I think it's somewhere between 20-30 DVD images for actually-everything. Maybe not something for the day-to-day but great to keep on hand for preppers and the paranoid (:
I’m not quite there yet to the point of archiving actually-everything, but I’m getting there