As per Bryan Lunduke's stated goals and offline statements at around 2:50 in the launch video:
I wanted to see a Linux distribution that had no online accounts needed for any piece of functionality. We see in Microsoft and Apple products constantly shoving in online services into so many applications, and we're seeing that increase in the Linux world, as well, and I don't want any part of it. I don't want to load up a text editor and have it "connect online" and need some sort of an authenticated account in order to do something, no! I want my computer to function at 100% - offline! (Or online!) It shouldn't actually matter, right? So that's a hard requirement. A hard requirement, not a suggestion. Neither of these are suggestions.
Is there a way we can install Linux software offline on this OS? I'm stuck on Windows because I have old software installers for software that I can install offline without dependencies. To my knowledge this is extremely difficult to do, if not impossible, on Linux and BSD (though variants like MacOS and Android all have offline installers like DMG and APK).
To install Linux software offline, it must be possible to install a program:
- from a local folder or file only
- without an internet connection
- without accessing apt/pacman online repositories
- in 10 years from an archived historical installer when the maintainers/authors are "dead"
- without manually resolving endless recursive dependencies (e.g. DEBs dependent on DEBs, dependent on DEBs, dependent on ...)
- without rebuilding from source (as building from source clutters userspace with build chaff, requires a large amount of computing power, time and electricity which will not necessarily be available)
- with an empty
/etc/apt/sources.list (or equivalent)
On Windows, this is all possible and is the standard since the 1990s; only with the rise of Chromium, DRM, Steam, Windows 10 and the Microsoft Store have online stub installers started to become the norm. You can install Office '97 on a Windows XP desktop while living on Robinson Crusoe's island, and write your memoirs without any connection to the internet. All you need is electricity.
There is no way (that I know of) to have "offline installers" on Linux. As this is a new distro with the stated goal of working offline, please could a system of offline installation of Linux software be included? Currently, Linux-based computers will not function without an internet connection to apt repositories, and most software will not even install without such a connection. This is effectively DRM and requires an ISP contract and the continued existence of the original software maintainers and no geo-blocks. The only Linux distro that seems to be approaching offline installers correctly as a goal is the WIP https://loss32.org/ by hikari_no_yume.
Non-answers:
- I have been told many times to "Just mirror the entire repository" (equivalent to "Just download every piece of software in existence, even those you don't need/use, and use huge amounts of storage, just for 1 word processor")
- Appimage/Snap/Flatpak - these are hacky workarounds with their own dependencies and don't install fully on Debian-based systems. The native installer for Debian-based systems is the DEB. Appimage has a dependency chain and is "portable", not an installation, and is rarely/never packaged by the original software authors (where is the Appimage for VIM? Curl? OpenSSL?). Snap is full of Ubuntu DRM and is sandboxed, and not suitable for general use. Flatpak is not an offline installer, but a stub (or, at least, there is no link to download
ProgramName.flatpak for anything on https://flathub.org/en-GB)
As per Bryan Lunduke's stated goals and offline statements at around 2:50 in the launch video:
Is there a way we can install Linux software offline on this OS? I'm stuck on Windows because I have old software installers for software that I can install offline without dependencies. To my knowledge this is extremely difficult to do, if not impossible, on Linux and BSD (though variants like MacOS and Android all have offline installers like DMG and APK).
To install Linux software offline, it must be possible to install a program:
/etc/apt/sources.list(or equivalent)On Windows, this is all possible and is the standard since the 1990s; only with the rise of Chromium, DRM, Steam, Windows 10 and the Microsoft Store have online stub installers started to become the norm. You can install Office '97 on a Windows XP desktop while living on Robinson Crusoe's island, and write your memoirs without any connection to the internet. All you need is electricity.
There is no way (that I know of) to have "offline installers" on Linux. As this is a new distro with the stated goal of working offline, please could a system of offline installation of Linux software be included? Currently, Linux-based computers will not function without an internet connection to
aptrepositories, and most software will not even install without such a connection. This is effectively DRM and requires an ISP contract and the continued existence of the original software maintainers and no geo-blocks. The only Linux distro that seems to be approaching offline installers correctly as a goal is the WIP https://loss32.org/ by hikari_no_yume.Non-answers:
ProgramName.flatpakfor anything on https://flathub.org/en-GB)