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Michael Murphy (S76)

@ mmstick @lemmy.world

Posts
57
Comments
251
Joined
3 yr. ago

I'm a System76 engineer / Pop!_OS maintainer. I've been a Linux user since 2007; and Rust since 2015. I'm currently working on COSMIC-related projects.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • They commented on their video that it was their fault. There was never a packaging issue. The issue was that we pushed a systemd source package update to Launchpad, which silently didn't build or publish the 32-bit systemd library packages, because Ubuntu had systemd on a blacklist for 32-bit package builds. We noticed this minutes after packages were published, and had it fixed within an hour later.

    This didn't actually affect any systems in the wild because apt held back the update until we had worked around the restriction on Launchpad (there was an invisible ceiling to the package version number). They were only affected during that time period because they manually entered that sentence from the prompt in a terminal. We stopped using Launchpad with 21.10, so all packages released since then are the same packages that are built and tested by our packaging server, and used by our QA team internally.

    The drama and reputational damage that LTT caused was unnecessary. Especially given that they uploaded this video a week later, and never attempted to reach out. They still have yet to properly edit the video.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • You are misunderstanding the data. It is not the number of users, but a percent of posts to ProtonDB, which only applies to PC gamers. There can be a disproportionately larger number of reports from those who need to spend time tweaking their system as opposed to using it, or that are particularly vocal about sharing their tweaks.

    The total number of users playing games on Linux is rising each year. Pop!_OS was the first OS that a lot of people tried a few years ago, and so you'll see a lot more diversity in choice now. People who are new to Linux, yet particularly heavily invested in it, tend to like to try out a lot of different distributions in the following years.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • I'm defining it the same way that Mint and Ubuntu is here. Which is when they release a new version of their ISO. We are currently on 22.04.37. Release date January of 2024. There are substantial changes since the first ISO build of 22.04

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • It's not stable in the Debian sense. We've always had rolling release updates for the system base; and people often complain about regressions in Linux, Pipewire, Mesa, and NVIDIA updates. I get them packaged shortly after they're released. As long as they pass QA tests in the System76 hardware lab, they get released within a week.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • I am still actively maintaining Pop!_OS. COSMIC has not changed that aspect of my job. Just within the last week I packaged Linux 6.6.8, Mesa 23.3.2, Just 1.22, Rust 1.75.0, and updated Popsicle's dependencies to fix a bindgen build error with recent versions of Clang. We have a systemd update that was packaged today, and I'll be doing another linux-firmware backport soon. So I don't understand why you'd think it is stagnant. We're even shipping Pipewire 1.0.0 by default, which Ubuntu hasn't yet done in the latest version. People usually complain that we update too often.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • Pop!_OS has released 37 versions based on Ubuntu Jammy, though. Soon to be 38.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • There are new versions released every two or three weeks. I'm about to release Linux 6.6.8 with Mesa 23.3.2. We have Pipewire 1.0.0 and NVIDIA 545. ISOs are regularly rebuilt with our latest updates.

  • Linux Distros Evolution - January 2024 Update: Pop!_OS in Decline?

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  • 2022 was only a year and a half ago, and we ship the latest Linux kernel, firmware, Mesa libraries, NVIDIA drivers and libraries, Pipewire/Wireplumber, ZFS, Firefox, Alacritty, Lutris, Steam, and Rust. Since when did we start considering that to be "incredibly ancient"? The next LTS release is not yet available to base Pop!_OS upon, but we ship newer kernels and drivers than the latest version of Ubuntu.

  • Redox OS - an OS built entirely out of Rust

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  • This is already in progress. COSMIC applications are compatible with Redox OS.

  • COSMIC Terminal next to COSMIC Editor with the same syntax theme

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  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • You can start with the libcosmic repository, and the examples contained within. We're going to work on revamping our design demo application soon, which will be a learning resource for COSMIC application development

  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • In my experience, that has never been an issue with any Rust-based projects. It's quite the opposite. 80% of time is spent completing the first 20% of the project, and then the remaining 80% is quickly finished as everything fits into place. Most of our time is spent in foundational work getting widgets created that we can use with our theme system, and then the actual implementation of the interface in the application is stupid easy.

    What you describe is what I felt developing the GNOME extensions. There's very little you can do to resolve issues that you encounter there.

  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • COSMIC Edit is being developed by our manager through personal motivation; who also developed cosmic-text, so this is the perfect playground for simultaneously advanced cosmic-text, and developing useful real world software with it. The git diff view was not yet part of planned designs, but it took only a portion of a day to implement. It adds a useful test case for the cosmic-text library, and improved cosmic-text as a result.

    We're all paid a full time salary to work on COSMIC and Pop!_OS. Each person on the team is going to spend a full day writing software, regardless of what they're working on, so concerns about burnout are somewhat silly. Burnout is typically caused by working overtime for extended periods of time. System76 has never required developers to work overtime to meet a deadline, and variety of workload can alleviate mental fatigue, so burnout is not a thing here.

  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • GNOME users wouldn't be happy having to install KDE dependencies to use a KDE text editor which doesn't have a consistent look and feel on their desktop. Same applies for KDE users.

  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • You are heavily overestimating how much effort is required to develop a text editor. It's a single person project using components that had to be developed for use in multiple applications; regardless of whether there is a text editor or not. Components that you'd be silly not to develop through a text editor project.

    You are trying too hard to justify that we not make a text editor. It feels like you don't want us to make a text editor at all. No one is on a path to burnout. Everyone is paid a full time salary to work on their respective areas. COSMIC development is doing really well.

  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • December Updates: The Spirit of COSMIC

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  • As is often the case with scientific research which many people believe to be pointless, technological innovations aren't always made by achieving the end goal, but through the technologies developed to reach that goal.

    Development on COSMIC Edit has lead towards improvements to the cosmic-text library, which is used by many GUI libraries in the Rust ecosystem now. Similarly, the UX designs for the text editor improves the COSMIC interface guidelines, and puts design theories to practice. Likewise, widgets that are necessary for the editor are added to the COSMIC platform toolkit, and existing widgets and features are improved to improve the development experience for applications like this.

    No one would want to build applications for a platform that lacks widgets capable of properly displaying, formatting, and editing text. Many would also find it debilitating to have a desktop environment without a text editor preinstalled. Imagine if GNOME didn't have Gedit, and KDE didn't have Kate.

    Besides, this is a default text editor for a desktop environment. It is really not that complex. The goal is not to develop an IDE, but a text editor that anyone would feel comfortable using as their default editor on the COSMIC platform.

  • Project-wide search implemented in COSMIC Edit

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  • COSMIC Edit with project-wide search

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