Show HN: GoboLinux 016 featuring Runner, a filesystem virtualization tool | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: GoboLinux 016 featuring Runner, a filesystem virtualization tool

gobolinux.org

80 pointshisham_hm20 comments

One thing that may be of interest that was introduced in virtual silence is the integration of language specific package managers via a tool called Alien.

So far it seems to support Perl, Python, Haskell(Main Alien --help do not list it, but there is a script for it in the Scripts bin dir), Lua and Ruby.

Oh, true that! Alien has been merged into the code base for so long that we didn't really remember to announce it as being one of the new features of the new release. Thanks a lot for pointing that out. We will include a note on that on the web site.

This looks pretty interesting. Bonus points for a tiling window manager. Am a bit disappointed in capitalization of directory names tho :(

Tab-completion is case-insensitive, so the names look good and are not a pain to type (and most importantly, they don't conflict with Unix names: Gobo predates /sys, so going with non-Unixy names proved to be a wise choice).

It's still annoying :)

This is pretty neat! It's nice to see something new/innovative in a distro these days.

Thanks a lot! We have been wanting to debut something like Runner for a long time, but now that we have lightweight infrastructure for containerization (such as native overlayfs in the kernel and support for private mount points) that finally turned into reality.

Looks interesting. Unfortunately the text based installer does not recognize LVM2 volumes.

Time to give the old box a massive update i guess.

Thanks for keeping GoboLinux going. What is the date on that blog post?

It's hot off the press! http://gobolinux.org/news/111.html

Wow, GoboLinux is still active. I remember playing with it about a decade or so ago.

Yes, and more importantly: there are still some fresh ideas coming out of it. The developers behind Gobo are operating systems and programming languages enthusiasts, so every now and then they use the distro as a platform for evaluating and sharing their ideas in a way that others can benefit from (and potentially improve upon).

[disclosure: I'm one of the guys developing it]

How does GoboLinux compare to Nix & Guix these days? Why would one use the former vs the latter?

This blogpost has a comparison of Gobolinux and Nix:

http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com.br/2011/12/evaluation-a...

Maybe some of the experts here on HN can comment on how accurate and up to date it is?

This is a great comparison, written I believe by one of the Nix devs.

As far as Gobo is concerned, the outdated parts is that the /System/Links/{Executables,Libraries,...} has been replaced by /System/Index/{bin,lib,...} which makes it easier to build packages (less compatibility issues to deal with, since /usr is a symlink to /System/Index). So it's easier for a user to compile their own stuff and get it working.

And of course, the comment at the end about the project inactivity no longer applies: Gobo is alive and well. :)

Apart from being Linux distros, that is an arbitrary and mostly pointless comparison, as those projects have entirely different goals.

* GoboLinux isolates software in OSX .app-like directories

* GoboLinux is much older

* GoboLinux has a better logo

Hi, GoboLinux dev here. While the projects do have somewhat different goals, I think the comparison is valid, since both of them modify the filesystem structure.

Both projects were started around the same time (2002). I _think_ we might have been ahead for a few months, but my memory may be failing me. I was shown Nix not long after Gobo was in the news for the first time (ah, the days of Slashdot and Kuro5hin... ;) )

I haven't looked closely at Nix for a long time, so things might have changed, but the main difference between Gobo and Nix, I think, is the degree of access you have to tweak the system by yourself.

Gobo keeps things directly user-tweakable (you can install your own programs with `./configure --prefix=/...; make; make install` if you want and Gobo will see it as a first-class citizen of the system), while Nix manages your filesystem tree on its own (it uses directories with hashes in its names, etc) so the user should only interact with packages via Nix's own tools. Of course, this is important so that Nix keeps its functional guarantees.

The goal in Gobo, on the other hand, is to give user full control (if you mess it up, it's your fault — but with a more organized filesystem, it's harder to mess it up).

And thanks for the compliment on the logo. :)

I can't find a proper timeline regarding Nix(OS), but i get the impression that it existed purely as a package manager until very recently. At least over at Distrowatch they have Gobolinux history going back to 2003, while NixOS shows up only as recently as 2014.

I remember GoboLinux from a decade or so ago. The Hungarian GoboLinux community took a huge blow when "poliverzum", a very active member of the community had to pursue other goals instead.

I really miss his articles on the topic. :(

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