Omakub – Opinionated Ubuntu Setup
github.com
github.com
I had not used Tactile for tiling before but I like it.
Alacrity is new to me and I don’t really get the preference for it, but no big deal.
Zellij is interesting and I feel like I just need a day to get use to it.
Mise is an interesting switch from asdf and direnv, but it seems really polished.
I like what I see enough that I’m going to stick with it for a month or so to see how it grows on me. I’ve spent enough time tweaking Linux installs in the past that sensible defaults that I don’t have to maintain have some appeal.
Probably my biggest default complaint.
It seems to be common to go through the experience when you "switch" to pick something less jarring and then migrate further towards the Linux spectrum.
This project seems to be tailored to people who are just making the switch
Just as with every linux flavor, it depends. I've been on Ubuntu for close to 20 years, and I went from a very customized setup to mostly just the defaults. I have a simple setup script to install my favorite apps. Yeah, and mapping the CapsLock key. I always stick to LTS versions.
With the official caps2esc plugin! https://gitlab.com/interception/linux/plugins/caps2esc
I use the stock caps2esc config; capsock by itself is Escape, but press with another key and it's control. Many other options are possible and writing your own plugin is not hard if nothing else suits. Interception-tools is amazing.
Interception-tools is also one of the most interestingly unix like tools out there, using pipes to break apart & pipeline it's tasks. Incredible power, but also kind of dauntint to really understand! Thankfully you can just copy paste the configs in & it works fine. But archwiki is a good write-up if you want to go deeper on this epic tool. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/interception-tools
Setting up interception-tools as a systemd user service with a Nice=-10 is a good early lesson on improving your world with modern Linux tools. Highly highly highly recommend. I cannot work without.
I don't care about tiling window managers or a different terminal or ssh sessions.
TBH it looks like Windows 98 (I put a bar at the bottom with a "start" menu, some quick launch icons, window buttons, clock and tray icons). But it was pretty good, and lets me work efficiently.
As a Linux user since Slackware 1.1, this is why I love linux. Apple says Think Different, but it's all the same. Linux is what you want it to be.
Complete aside: I was wondering when Apple said this and apparently it has been over two decades (!)
Then I was sick of it breaking and having to customise everything and went back to Ubuntu. I don't bother anymore with the rest and it's great!
Ubuntu is the distro that most likely works out of the box and is the most compatible with any software. The rest are just preferences.
Maybe this project can help people explore new configurations. However, I've found that each tweak costs time with each installation, needs regular updates, and some elements are not compatible. It is possible to enjoy the flexibility of Linux without trying to be a Picasso of the desktop experience.
Also, I tried it in a box, it crashed.
True, Arch with the CachyOS-repos is a great combo, or FreeBSD ;)
https://wiki.cachyos.org/cachyos_repositories/what_are_the_c...
I personally went with Linux Mint, because it doesn't try to push snaps and honestly the Cinnamon desktop is lovely and gets out of the way, a bit like XFCE but in some ways more polished: https://www.linuxmint.com/
It's nice that I don't even need custom scripts, it's pretty good out of the box. Of course, it's not like default Ubuntu would be unusable or anything like that, either, just personal preference.
That said, contrary to popular opinion, I actually liked Ubuntu a lot, back when it had the Unity desktop, it felt better to me than GNOME, but maybe that's just me. I guess there are projects like https://ubuntuunity.org/ out there still, but using something that's not popular nowadays seems like it might lead to issues down the road.
For servers, Ubuntu LTS is fine as is.
Ubuntu is good for people that don't have time to custom build and debug out-of-repo packages. And in many cases the signed boot-loader/kernel gets around some UFEI bios that block end user configuration.
Debian is usually the cleaner option, but Ubuntu after heavy modding is more user friendly (i.e. official support for drivers/hardware is more practical.)
Cheers =)
The difference of course is I'm not trying to reskin Ubuntu itself, which is why the scripts don't install e.g. i3 or Sway -- rather, they're designed to make the shell experience itself more addictive to people who aren't already seasoned Unix hands.
More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40591112
That said, I think there are legal issues around licensing with doing such a thing, which is why most distros avoid including them in the first place.
P.S. Literally every desktop environment on Linux looks better than Windows, if you'd ask me.
[1] https://world.hey.com/dhh/committing-to-windows-2d6388fd
That's some retconning. He felt slighted by Apple one too many times with App Store woes and decided to change his entire company to not be dependent on Apple products. But obviously that would seem a petty, and/or emotionally driven decision. So he made the narrative about running -to- something rather than running -from- something
Along came a slew of Apple faithful, who had spent the last years vehemently complaining about how this was an anathema to the principles of the web, gleefully repeating the same things, this time it was just an unspoken or less spoken "Works on Safari on my Mac, ship it".
37signals was definitely one of those. So it's not a new thing.
> I've decided to make Windows my new primary abode. That's Windows with Linux running inside of it as a subsystem (WSL), mind you. I would never have contemplated a switch to Windows without being able to run Linux inside it.
And the choices they make: they often leap without looking or derisking.
I'll take QubesOS on the desktop, thanks, and then have a choice of flavor per app to isolate them similar to Kata Containers k8s server-side.
Nawh, let's not go back that far because then we lose yellow backgrounds, dithered blue sphere .GIFs, and 64pt fuchsia marquee blink tags.
To be fair here, the subscription is free[1] for most home users and even some small businesses:
>Free, personal subscription for 5 machines for you or any business you own, or 50 machines for active Ubuntu Community members.
Security aside... What's the command? Sites like oh-my-zsh have it front and center. This is a git repo.
wget -qO- https://omakub.org/install | bashBut, these bash scripts are definitely terrible for maintenance. They do a bunch of changes to your system and you can't undo those changes easily.
You are right about scripts doing a bunch of changes to your system. Certainly, if you don't even save the script, you won't even know where to start!
Despite encountering your kind of attitude many times in the past, I don't get it at all. Maybe I'm missing something.
If you do trust the author of said thing, what's the problem?
If you don't trust the author, why would you even run their scripts?
No offense, but even if you do inspect all of the code, I doubt you'd be able to find all the potential backdoors and issues. If you trust the author of Omakub, they have the ability to screw your security anyway, I don't think there's a way of preventing that.
Generally, piping random scripts into a shell is awful, even if you vaguely trust the author of the thing you think you're getting. There are multiple ways you can end up with unexpected evil code on your system that way, with or without the project itself being involved.
I don’t really get why this is the straw that breaks the back for some people and suddenly puts them at high alert. Do you do a diff on the .xpi whenever a Firefox extension updates? Yeah we really should, but we don’t. At some point it’s too much overhead to deal with.
If you truly wish to review what this does, here’s the github: https://github.com/basecamp/omakub
Everyone can easily clone the Omakub repository to their own server, review it, and use it from there. Should that be the recommended installation method? How do you deal with updates?
If you ask me, you should do vetting proportional to the amount of time you have and the risk involved in a compromise of your system. That may practically mean that you won't install much of anything except via the most well popular software channels. Even then, you may opt to compile the stuff. If you don't have enough skills or time to do this vetting, you should err on the side of caution.
Do you read all the source code you compile?
You might not realize but there are several ways you can be compromised. What if the web server was set up to serve some exploit when you download from a terminal (which is doable), or else you were intercepted by a man in the middle? Both of those exploits have been demonstrated and aren't even difficult to do. They also require no involvement from the author of the software. If it's downloading other stuff, each of those items also has the same concern.
Wait, wasn't the hash supposed to help when the web server is compromised?
Man in the middle is also a problem for the hash. I really don't see what this theatre is about...
I already explained how the code could end up not being what you thought it was. If a we server randomly serves exploits to 1% of requests, or intelligently detects non-interactive downloaders, you can get hacked that way. And if you don't even save the script, you can't even look at it if you have doubts.
https://github.com/nathants/arch-setup
next setup i want to figure out is working off customized archiso with all state in e2e cloud and/or local spinning rust.
No set -eox pipefail?
Why fight the uphill battle with Ubuntu at that point?
Plus, the docker experience on Linux is significantly better.
I've been using a Linux desktop since 1998 and while other distros have their benefits, I choose to use Ubuntu Desktop for a whole host of reasons. This bloat is a non-issue (granted, I'm not running on a netbook). If I were to help someone switch to Linux, it'd definitely be either on Ubuntu Desktop or Linux Mint.
don’t forget to use a snitch. any app could start surveillance at any time for any reason.
i don’t ever let firefox talk to .mozilla..
I also massively disagree about Win/Mac making better workstations (though I haven't had to use Ubuntu for a very, very long time).