Impressive distro is somewhere between a tech demo and a power user's tool:
While many Ubuntu remixes just switch the desktop or replace a few default apps, Zinc changes some of the fundamentals. The result is impressive.
Teejeetech is a small computer consultancy in Kerala, India, run by programmer Tony George. Zinc isn't the company's first distro, nor is this the company's first mention on The Register. We previously mentioned their earlier Unity-based remix, U-Mix, as well as originally developing the Timeshift backup tool included in Linux Mint. We thought we'd come back for a proper look at Zinc, the company's second-generation distro.
Unlike U-Mix, Zinc is a free download. It's based on the current long-term support version of Xubuntu, 22.04.1, so it uses a customized Xfce desktop, plus quite a few additional apps and changed components. Perhaps its biggest change from mainstream Ubuntu is in packaging tools: it includes neither Canonical's own Snap format nor the GNOME/Red Hat alternative Flatpak.
[...] For installing software from the Ubuntu repositories, Zinc has an improved command-line package manager called Nala, which we mentioned recently. Nala is a Python-based replacement for the apt command, which integrates some of the features of Fedora's dnf tool, such as parallel downloads and more readable output.
[...] Between nala, deb-get, and AppImage integration, there's little need for the bloat of Snaps and Flatpaks.
[...] There are less visible tweaks under the hood as well. The default filesystem is Btrfs, with compression enabled and /home in its own subvolume. The terminal emulator is Terminator, and although the default shell is still Bash, it has an informative full color custom prompt. The installer is Calamares, as used by Lubuntu and several other distros.
For all these extras, the distro is quite lightweight. After a fresh boot, RAM usage at idle is 709MB, about the same as ordinary Ubuntu, and it uses just 6.9GB of disk space, lower than any official remix — although in part that's because it (optionally) creates a dedicated swap partition, rather than using a swap file like all the official Ubuntu remixes.
Before you ask about systemd, the answer is "yes."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Gaaark on Thursday October 20 2022, @01:50AM (2 children)
Using Garuda linux currently on my new PC setup.
QUITE enjoying it, but didn't put it on my Plex media player system: garuda seems more like for testing.
Uses zram and BTRFS, as well as some tweaks for gaming.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2022, @01:57AM (1 child)
What do you run Plex on?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Gaaark on Thursday October 20 2022, @03:14PM
Plain ol' Manjaro.
Still very nice, very fast, just not "cutting edge" stuff, which is nice too.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday October 20 2022, @03:34AM (7 children)
There, FTFY.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Thursday October 20 2022, @08:09AM (5 children)
I don't see it that way. By having a sensible program manager combining the best of apt and dnf (which it tells you allows you to install "software from the Ubuntu repositories") it does away with snap and flatpak.
The snap installation of Firefox is, IMO, braindead. It does not allow you to save anything outside of your home folder. So I want to download some software that I usually store in my /data/bin/ directory but I cannot. It is not 'sandboxed'. It offers me directories like /run/user/1000/doc/addb35b/ - how is that supposed to be meaingful? And the next time I save, it gives me a completely different cryptic directory. How do I separate different types of data? Yes, I know that I can set up links in my home directory to resolve this problem - but I shouldn't have to do so.
It is MY computer. It is all mine. Not just the bits that snap/Firefox want to me have access to. I will decide how my computer works. I will control who has access to which files and directories - the way linux is designed to let you do. One of the first things that I do is remove the snap version of Firefox and install a proper version from a different secure repo.
Zinc appears to have been written by somebody who understands this. I'll give it a try on a spare machine.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Thursday October 20 2022, @12:38PM (4 children)
Try he mv command.
type "man mv" in your shell for more information.
I use a system user with almost no permissions to browse the Internet and download/upload stuff so I use mv all the time. It takes me at most 5 seconds every time I use it, if I include the time to cut and paste paths.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday October 20 2022, @05:12PM (3 children)
I can use Linux, thank you.
I shouldn't have to mv anything - I should decide where things are to be saved.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Thursday October 20 2022, @05:39PM (2 children)
This a security trade off. By the way, I was being sarcastic with the mv thing. I forgot the /s
I even sometimes download to a VM which doesn't have access to anything and scp into it to retrieve the file. Again, it depends on the security level you want.
If you want to browse the Internet with a browser that access to all your stuff, so be it!
Cheers,
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday October 20 2022, @05:47PM (1 child)
How about I tell it where to put things and that is what it does. It doesn't need to go anywhere else. It just needs to access a directory that I choose.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Thursday October 20 2022, @06:54PM
try a hard link (not symlink):
ln source_dir destination_dir
or mount bind:
mount --bind source_dir destination_dir
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2022, @12:46PM
Not having snap support is a definite feature
(Score: 2) by Sjolfr on Thursday October 20 2022, @09:02PM
This is one of those glass half full/glass half empty deals. It's great that anyone can make a linux distribution ... but it also sucks that any sputz can make a linux distribution.
I wish more people would focus on actually making linux better instead of just making their distro different. At least I don't have to try their experiment.
But, I'm as guilty as anyone I suppose. I once switched from Slackware to Redhat ... sad days, those.