this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Linux
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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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I think the main premise is that every version of every software has its own installation prefix. This allows you to mix&match different versions, perform atomic upgrades, etc. You can think of it as a proto-Nix. TBH I don't see much point in it now that Nix(OS) and Guix exist, or, if you don't like their purity, stal/IX.
so a bunch of versions of stuff to be compatible.. like what flatpak does?
No, not quite. Flatpak is containers - it just stuffs every dependency that an application needs in a directory with no way to deduplicate or update independently. Gobo is a bit more nuanced, since dependencies are shared between applications when the versions match.
flatpak does indeed deduplicate. The stuff is updated to whatever is required as a dependency to whatever programs are installed. And versions are shared between applications when versions match as well..
So I am guessing it is just like flatpak
They only dedup runtimes, not individual dependencies.