
PapyrOS, based on Arch Linux - ekianjo
http://papyros.io
======
UserRights
Does this distro offer transactional updates with rollbacks or is it still
depending on update ideas from the stone age?

Archlinux is a very good distro, but I do not understand why they are forcing
users to read update instructions (boooring!) and replicate these instructions
manually - seems bizarro to me: to update a computing system, something that
was invented to replace tedious manual workflows in the first place, every
single user is forced to replicate manual instructions (sometimes).

It's the same with thousands of technical blog writers out there, writing long
articles about how to configure your system or "how to install x, y, z on a,
b, c" \- in all seriousness they want you to copy and paste computing
instructions manually into your machine - this looks like an interesting steam
punk counter-culture phenomenon in the age of the rising devops revolution...

Is it a psychological mechanism, lying deeply in our genes, that helps our
species not to develop to fast? Is there some "evolution retardant" in our
substances that forces us to not adopt new things too fast, as they might be
wrong? Many people are still programming in C and we are having the same
problems like 30 years ago in computing, what seems to be enough of evidence
for the existence of such an invisible evolutionary regulator.

Can't we have a linux distro that sends out updates via punchcards, sent to
you with a monthly magazin that contains lots of manual input instructions for
your modern device (and a lot of comics)? Let's call it NeanderOS or Mammutix.
Any VC interested? Let's make this the next big thing!

Have a nice sunday!

~~~
tinco
I was always under the impression that having to read the update logs and
configure things manually was the entire point of Archlinux. At least that was
the reason I used it for years.

If you want a system that automatically configures stable updates you should
go for Ubuntu. That's what I do now since I deem my knowledge of linux
sufficient and just want to get things done.

~~~
drdaeman
As I got it, parent comment wasn't about having stable (tested) packages, but
automated measures to recover one's ass when a bug slips through (or when you
just want to risk or whatever) and update leaves you with unuseably broken
system.

This sort of situation has happened to me on various distros, and Ubuntu
wasn't an exception.

------
matteotom
This looks awesome. I really like the look of ChromeOS (and ChromiumOS), but
it's a pain in the ass to de-Google-ify, install new packages, and use on non-
Google approved hardware. This looks like a good, actually open source
alternative.

------
frozenport
》We’re not building an entire desktop shell from scratch – we’re building a
Wayland compositor using the QtCompositor APIs, which takes care of most of
the work for window management and compositing.

------
bananaoomarang
Don't think Material design works very well w/o touch, but any fresh desktop
development on Linux with Wayland is welcome right now.

~~~
thewhitetulip
My thoughts exactly, Material design was sorta designed for Android, bright
colours go well with small screens like cell phones, they, to my best
knowledge don't go well with desktops. That being said if their OS really is
good then hats off to them for making Material design available for the
desktop, but I do hope app developers choose proper colours.

~~~
higherpurpose
Actually it was designed to be cross-platform.

[http://cdn03.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07...](http://cdn03.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/material-design-1.png)

[http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/material...](http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/materialdesigndevices-640x362.png?410b2a)

I think it works fine. Certainly better than Metro ever did.

~~~
thewhitetulip
Yes, it is better than metro, but there is a stark difference between computer
usage and mobile phone usage. Mobile phones are used for calling/texting etc,
desktops are used for various things like programming, mobiles are used round
the clock, desktops normally aren't used round the clock, so it makes sense of
having colourful windows for a mobile phone but for me it doesn't make sense
to have a colourful window theme for a desktop OS.

>[http://cdn03.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07...](http://cdn03.androidauthority.net/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/material-design-1.png) to the best of my knowledge the
devices are nexus 4, nexus7 and chromebook.

I don't think they meant to show a laptop/desktop there.

That is my point actually a chromebook is used casually like a phone, so it
makes sense to have colourful things in it to say entice users with beautiful
OS, I wouldn't want colourful windows on my linux box where I code :D.

I have tried almost all linux distro, and currently I am on elementary OS, I
am bored of almost every other DE, Pantheon seems to be delightful to use!

------
gravypod
This project looks really cool, if the OS ends up working well I'll switch to
it for my day-to-day laptop.

On a side note I'm extremely happy with recent events. It seems like the Linux
community is making a large push to break the only market that linux has not
completely taken over. I remember watching a video of Linus giving a talk. He
said something to the effect of "I write Linux to be a desktop OS and that is
the one market where Linux has not completely taken over. It kind of bugs me."
(Note: This is from memory).

If this movement of the development of a "user-friendly" Linux desktop is
successful I can see a future where it becomes a standard. My children might
well be running Linux with me yelling "Back in my day, we dealt with
corporations who put backdoor in their OS. You whippersnappers have it easy!"

------
belgianguy
Is there a Ubuntu DE that implements Material Design somewhere? I'm quite fond
of the style, but am not in a place where I can easily switch to Arch (from
Ubuntu).

------
hanlec
What are the advantages of PapyrOS versus say elementary OS?

~~~
ekianjo
It's based on Arch, not Ubuntu (well not sure that's an advange for the most
basic users) so it's a rolling distro release (means you do not have to update
every 6 months). Arch builds package from source while Ubuntu's package system
is simply offer repositories of binaries. Arch gives you more "power" in that
sense.

~~~
Arguggi
pacman (Arch's package manager) does not build from source, it downloads
binary packages from the repos just like Ubuntu. Differently from Ubuntu
packages are usually as vanilla and up to date as possible.

You build packages from source when you install something from the AUR[0] or
you can build from the Arch Build System [1].

[0]
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository)

[1]
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Build_System](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Build_System)

~~~
bananaoomarang
Every binary package was built using ABS though, and a PKGBUILD is just a bash
script so you do have the flexibility to build every package from source a la
Gentoo.

------
_mgr
Is it pronounced "paper"?

~~~
morbius
My best guess is that the pronunciation is identical to 'papyrus,' though with
an 'o' in place of the 'u' \-- so something like pah-pyhr-ohs or pah-pyhr-oh-
ess.

~~~
algorithm314
Papyros is papyrus in greek.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus#Etymology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus#Etymology)

------
Numberwang
Seems interesting. I do hate interacting with Material design however and
can't wait for it to go away.

I feel the same way about it as I do about the hipster trend. I got bored with
it a long time ago and still people think it is cool somehow.

~~~
felixvolny
Wow you're a meta-hipster - you were a hipster before it was cool. How ironic
of you!

