I’m just some kind of nerd: software developer, big fan of functional programming, especially Haskell and Scheme. I also love old Macintosh computers. Haskell programming since 2007, Linux user since 2008, Emacs user since 2018. Currently working as an app developer at a small machine learning consultancy. You could call me a “full stack” engineer, but server-side is where I am really in my element.

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Cake day: November 29th, 2022
  • Ramin Honary@emacs.chtoFree and Open Source Software@beehaw.org•[@foss](https://beehaw.org/c/foss) there was a Linux distro for writers but it appears to be dead. Anyone have links to similar distros for non technical writers? Read about the mentioned distro at [h
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    1 year ago

    @weirdwriter @foss

    there was a Linux distro for writers but it appears to be dead. Anyone have links to similar distros for non technical writers?

    I think if you are going to create software that is “for X” (e.g. for writers, for music producers, for electricians, etc.) a Linux distro is not the correct category of tool to use. A better tool would be a “software suite,” or a “metapackage.” For this, you should just install a common Linux distribution like Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Pop!_OS, and then search that distro’s software repository for a writers metapackage, or packages tagged with writers tools.

    According to that article you linked, you really just need 4 applications: LyX, GIMP, “gv”, and Dillo, all of which are available in the Ubuntu repository.

    A Linux distro is not a software package at all, really, it is a service. It is a group of people that provide a reliable and up-to-date set of software tools that all work together. They have to regularly compile updates to the hundreds or thousands of software packages, and test each one to make sure changes to some of the underlying library code has not cause the application to break. Then they have to distribute these packages to the users of the distro, nowadays over the Internet, but many distros used to do CDs or DVDs as well.

    So really, you should choose a Linux distribution based on whether they have the software you need, and based on how often they upgrade their software packages (are you getting the latest versions or do you have to wait years to get the latest and greatest), and also based on how much you trust the service provider, and based on how reliable their package delivery service is (i.e. how reliable is their website).

    (See also: how to pick a Linux Distro)