
Show HN: GoboLinux 016 featuring Runner, a filesystem virtualization tool - hisham_hm
http://gobolinux.org/gobolinux016.html
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digi_owl
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.

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lucasvr_br
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.

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retr0h
This looks pretty interesting. Bonus points for a tiling window manager. Am a
bit disappointed in capitalization of directory names tho :(

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hisham_hm
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).

~~~
retr0h
It's still annoying :)

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

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lucasvr_br
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.

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

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

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chaz6
Thanks for keeping GoboLinux going. What is the date on that blog post?

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hisham_hm
It's hot off the press!
[http://gobolinux.org/news/111.html](http://gobolinux.org/news/111.html)

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

~~~
lucasvr_br
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]

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

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ufo
This blogpost has a comparison of Gobolinux and Nix:

[http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com.br/2011/12/evaluation-a...](http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.com.br/2011/12/evaluation-
and-comparison-of-gobolinux.html)

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

~~~
hisham_hm
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. :)

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kodfodrasz
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. :(

