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    • @MaliciousKebab@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7•2 years ago

      It’s essentially running a linux container on top of your own system. Which means you can use the toolkit of those distros ( for example the package manager of that system) to install apps from their repos, even gui apps. But those containers also has access to your orijinal filesystem so be careful how you use them. Might want to watch Brodie’s video on it.

  • agilobEnglish
    1•2 years ago

    Why would you need multiple distros at the same time?

    • @LeFantome@programming.devEnglish
      2•2 years ago

      Think of it as multiple user lands on one distro. So, why?

      What if I really love the stability and familiarity of Debian Stable but applications that are either ancient versions or totally missing in Debian? Well, I could use Distrobox on Debian to get access to the Arch Linux repositories ( the largest collection of Linux software anywhere ).

      What if I do not want to install huge Flatpaks for the above and prefer more traditional package management and more timely updates?

      What if I want to setup a dev or test environment, want to be able to make a mess and remove it later, not also want access to my other tools and files from that environment?

      What if i want to experience other package managers and userlands without having to lose my existing system only to discover I do not like it?

      What if I want to build software for a specific disto and want to access files and tools on my main distribution to do so?

      I am sure there are many, many more reasons.

      Anyway, it is just one way to do things with pros and cons like anything else. Personally, I really like it.

  • NoodlezEnglish
    1•2 years ago

    I use Distrobox with my NixOS machine for when I need AppImage support (or some random binary that isn’t equipped for Nix’s weird ass directory layout) and it’s amazing! Pretty much native speed, and when I’m done with it I can just wipe it out. Perfect!

    • ChewyEnglish
      0•2 years ago

      Distrobox is great and I also used on Fedora Silverblue before switching to NixOS (with similar use cases).

      For running AppImages there’s also appimage-run on NixOS. https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Appimage

      • Noodlez
        1•2 years ago

        I’m aware, but the appimage I run (Slippi Launcher) will run other appimages, and appimage-run can’t handle that, since it extracts the appimage, then runs the contents, but it won’t automatically do that for other appimages that are run.

        Which is why I used a Distrobox and it was awesome, worked like a charm. I used Arch previously, and I just made an Arch distrobox and it worked perfectly.