caleb on Nostr: the underlying point, is that you can use buildstream to build a whole OS image from ...
the underlying point, is that you can use buildstream to build a whole OS image from scratch and ship it, you can also do it with apk or presumably rpm or apt.
GNOME OS intends to improve stability by freezing the versions of all software until release, allowing different system components to be updated in-sync, solving the (imo not super significant but important at scale) issue of users upgrading their system in the middle of a release like this and breaking their system.
But you can totally do this with a classic distro, Valve do this for the Steam deck (they mirror the arch repos and hold stuff back).
When it comes to end user freedom, the difference is that you can't just add CUPS or something to your GNOME OS installation, you need to build a whole new image. I don't think this is the right way to build a system, it works for Android because Google are HUGE and have the resources to manage all of these components and integrate them.
I would make the argument that Alpine stable is simply a better implementation of this exact concept, every 6 months the rolling edge branch is forked off, some time is spent testing and getting packages to stable versions, then it's shipped and has security/bug fixes applied.
GNOME OS is /just/ another distro, but worse because you cannot supplement it without building a new image or some kind of sysext.
Like, compare these two...
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-build-meta/-/blob/master/elements/vm-deps/alsa-ucm-conf.bst?ref_type=heads
https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/blob/master/main/alsa-ucm-conf/APKBUILD
GNOME OS intends to improve stability by freezing the versions of all software until release, allowing different system components to be updated in-sync, solving the (imo not super significant but important at scale) issue of users upgrading their system in the middle of a release like this and breaking their system.
But you can totally do this with a classic distro, Valve do this for the Steam deck (they mirror the arch repos and hold stuff back).
When it comes to end user freedom, the difference is that you can't just add CUPS or something to your GNOME OS installation, you need to build a whole new image. I don't think this is the right way to build a system, it works for Android because Google are HUGE and have the resources to manage all of these components and integrate them.
I would make the argument that Alpine stable is simply a better implementation of this exact concept, every 6 months the rolling edge branch is forked off, some time is spent testing and getting packages to stable versions, then it's shipped and has security/bug fixes applied.
GNOME OS is /just/ another distro, but worse because you cannot supplement it without building a new image or some kind of sysext.
Like, compare these two...
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-build-meta/-/blob/master/elements/vm-deps/alsa-ucm-conf.bst?ref_type=heads
https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/blob/master/main/alsa-ucm-conf/APKBUILD