The immutable state of distros like fedora silerblue and opensuse microos leads to the use of distrobox.

I defaulted to a fedora image but there must be better images for the job. What do you suggest to use if you just want to install pdflatex, pandoc, R, julia, python, ffmpeg, etc. Just the usual tools you need for the tasks everyday

  • PlexSheep@feddit.de
    231·
    11 months ago

    I’d recommend debian - the universal operating system.

    If your software does not exist for debian, your software does not exist. (Ubuntu is just debian with extra corpo flavour)

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      11 months ago

      It’s been a while since I’ve used pure debian, but historically I’ve used Ubuntu because debian made it more difficult to install “non-free” software. Has this changed?

        • Nia [She/Her]@lemmy.world
          6·
          11 months ago

          What’s nice is that for new fresh installs, non-free-firmware repo is already enabled if the installer detects that it’s needed, way more convenient than before.

          Contrib and non-free still need to be enabled manually though, it’d be nice if they added toggles for those in the installer itself one day

  • llothar@lemmy.ml
    82·
    11 months ago

    One year ago I treated how long it takes to get Gimp to install on various distros in distrobox:

    Results:

    zypper@Tumbleweed: 3 minutes, 22 seconds

apt@Ubuntu 22.04: 1 minute 26 seconds

dnf@Fedora: 1 minute 2 seconds

pacman@arch: 0 minutes 21 seconds

    But that’s just installation speed. It simply shows that there are quite big differences depending on use case.

  • SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    11 months ago

    For everyday tasks, I think a Fedora distrobox works fine, but you would have to upgrade it eventually and I admit I’m not sure how you do that under distrobox. Still, I initially used it and still have a Fedora distrobox I use for doing stuff for my job, as well as one I use for running a game modding program that requires Java, and they both work fine.

    I’ve also had success with a Debian distrobox, which I used to compile Render96ex. Debian is pretty universal, so it’s much easier to follow compile instructions using it than a Fedora distrobox ^^’

  • DangerousInternet@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 months ago

    Any that suits you better… I use default fedora image for simplier toolbox enter for most things, but I also have Debian and Arch images, I occasionally use. I layered ffmpeg, so other software could use it too.

  • Chaewon@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    11 months ago

    My go-to is an arch container just because I like to have rolling releases, access to AUR, and I like pacman. I wouldn’t overthink it though. If the fedora container works for you, then it’s fine.