this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
49 points (96.2% liked)

Linux

48684 readers
385 users here now

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm aware of Debian's reputation for not having the most up-to-date software in its repository but have just noticed that Thunderbird is on its current version. Which makes me ask:

When does Debian update a package? And how does it decide when to?

I'm particularly interested in when it will make available the upcoming major release of GIMP to 3.0.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The amount of changes I've made and things I've installed. If I move to another distro, it's gonna be at least a week before I have everything back up to where I want it.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 3 points 1 month ago

I understand. Maybe two things to consider:

  • It will depends how you installed your apps, but I have file containing a fe useful instruction in case I need to reinstall my system, one of them is just a 'sudo apt install followed by the name of every single app I want to use'. I only need to copy and paste in a next terminal window to gat all my apps installed. All except the few that I don't install using apt, say the few appimages I also use. For me it means three more apps, so it's no big deal to download them by hand ;)
  • Most user settings and configuration should be stored somewhere in you home folder (for example, I know there many settings stored in the .config folders, others (related to the system and the DE you're using maybe stored somewhere in .local, all my custom fonts are stored in ./fonts, and so on. I'm sorry, I'm no expert so I'm not very precise). All of that to say: by baking up your home, you probably also are backing up a lot of your configuration and tweaks.

I have no idea how those settings are portable between two completely different distros, but I have once reinstalled my system and got most of my settings instantly back just by copying my home folder over to that fresh install. That plus the single line 'sudo apt list-of-all-my-apps' I was almost completely operational in mere minutes, including all my customer menus, panels, text size, themes,... The one thing I remember not working from that backup was my SSH keys. No idea why.