SpiralLinux - It's really Debian underneath the hood!

I recently ran across SpiralLinux - GitHub page, and found the concept of how the maintainer is packaging it very cool.

The maintainer has been maintaining Gecko Linux for a while now - it has the same underlying concept.

The gist is - you're basically installing Debian, but with customizations that the maintainer(s) thought would be very helpful. Basically - better out of the box experience for new users, but also less work to do even for experienced users, and it comes with different download flavors - Gnome, Plasma, XFCE, Mate, etc.

Bit more detail by the maintainer in this Reddit comment:

Exactly. It's like I went over to your house and installed and configured Debian on your computer, and then you kicked me out of your house as soon as I finished. ;-) The installed system no longer has any connection whatsoever with me or the SpiralLinux project, which is good because you wouldn't want your entire system to depend on a random single developer maintaining it.

(original Reddit comment has more details).

I thought this was pretty cool. I'm still trying to read up online on trying to find how the package lists are maintained, etc., and I might be interested in contributing if I'm able to in the future.

Just wanted to share!

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40 comments

Hi everyone, SpiralLinux creator here. Another thing that motivated the creation of this set of spins is the diversity of hardware, even in my own machines. I personally don't like having to switch to a completely different distro for a specific computer just because of hardware support issues. Some devices might need a newer kernel for certain components to work, whereas other hardware works better with the older kernel from Debian Stable. So SpiralLinux offers a hybrid approach, Debian Stable base system with the Debian Stable kernel included on the live ISO, but the much newer kernel version from Debian Backports is also available on the ISO. This can make the difference between the image booting or not, or between having internet connectivity or not, and it makes it more likely that SpiralLinux will work across the entire range of a user's computers.
- Nice seeing you on Lemmy! Does this mean you're not using OpenSUSE anymore? Or are you still working on GeckLinux as well?
  
  Nice seeing you on Lemmy! Does this mean you’re not using OpenSUSE anymore? Or are you still working on GeckLinux as well?
  Hi there, thanks! For my personal needs and for the users that I support, it's important that the system not be a rolling release, and the Cinnamon desktop works extremely well for almost all use cases. SUSE and openSUSE are trying to move away from the conventional Linux OS paradigm and transition to a new buzzword-compliant immutable/atomic-updating/containerized OS, and they're going to pull the plug on openSUSE Leap in the not-too-distant future. For users that need/want a rolling distro I still think that Tumbleweed is the best option out there, but unfortunately Cinnamon has been unmaintained for almost 2 years in Tumbleweed and it's currently broken despite my attempts to submit updated packages. So I'm not going to invest time into updating the GeckoLinux Rolling ISOs until/unless the Cinnamon desktop is fixed and properly maintained for openSUSE Tumbleweed, and since Leap is going away I have dropped the Static and NEXT editions from GeckoLinux and recommend SpiralLinux for users that don't need a rolling release.
  
  Yeah, it's a shame that Leap is supposed to go away (I think it's not entirely decided yet, is it? It depends whether some people want to offer a Leap-like solution or not in the future). Tumbleweed is super great, but it's not for every usecase...
  
  I think it’s not entirely decided yet, is it? It depends whether some people want to offer a Leap-like solution or not in the future
  Well, yes, in theory a group of people could offer a Leap-like distro in the future. But that's a big if, because even now with SUSE doing the lion's share of the heavy lifting in SLE there are very few contributors to Leap. And those are only for additional Leap community packages, as the core of Leap is a binary copy of SLE. It's very important to note that SUSE itself will be de-emphasizing SLE as a sort of legacy product in maintenance mode for long contracts, and they will aggressively push customers toward ALP. So as I see it, SUSE's plans are considerably more radical than all of the drama at Redhat, because Redhat is still focusing on RHEL as its core product and is planning future major releases. Although they made it more difficult for the clones, the upstream product is still there. Whereas SUSE is actually trying to move its core upstream product to something completely different. So a theoretical Leap replacement would have to take on a huge burden of maintaining the entire core system with no upstream to base it on (unless they use SUSE's clone of RHEL as the base, which would be a weirdly convoluted thing from a conceptual viewpoint). It looks like the more likely openSUSE offering to replace Leap will be a LTS offering known as "Linarite", but its upstream will be ALP, not SLE, and its scope will probably be mainly for servers. As you say, nothing is certain yet. But that's actually the biggest issue for me, when we talk about the "stability" of a distro we're not just referring to "not crashing"; a big part of "stability" is predictability and long-term viability. It feels like SUSE is going through a midlife crisis, and they seem to recognize that the move to ALP is a gamble. I don't like feeling as if my desktop OS or worse still my server OS is on life support and I'll eventually have to migrate it to something completely different. So I appreciate the slow plodding predictability of Debian, and knowing that it will still be there for me and work approximately the same for the N+1 release and probably the N+10 release as well.
- Do you consider SpiralLinux something I could throw on my grandma's computer and she will be fine for the next 5 years? (when Bookworm runs out of updates)
  Will updates be installed automatically or will the potential user have to know a little bit what they are doing?
  What about upgrades? Once the current Debian release is EOL, how easy will it be to jump to the next one?
  Thanks for your efforts!
  
  Do you consider SpiralLinux something I could throw on my grandma’s computer and she will be fine for the next 5 years? (when Bookworm runs out of updates)
  Hi there, yes, this is exactly the intended use case. For users that would be confused by updates and changes, and also for experienced users that simply need to get work done on a reliable low-maintenance system that always works the same way.
  Will updates be installed automatically or will the potential user have to know a little bit what they are doing?
  No automatic updates, I recommend doing this every once in a while:
  https://github.com/SpiralLinux/SpiralLinux-project/wiki#updates-within-a-debian-stable-release-lifecycle
  I've never used it myself, but Debian does offer a daemon for automatic installation of updates, so that might be an option to consider for grandma's installation. But I'm not too paranoid about applying updates on a Linux system that is behind a standard broadband router running NAT and a firewall; in practice personal home Linux systems like that just aren't being compromised. Frankly the biggest danger by far for grandma would be social engineering attacks and scam call centers.
  What about upgrades? Once the current Debian release is EOL, how easy will it be to jump to the next one?
  It's pretty easy and very reliable in my experience and from what SpiralLinux 11 users have commented about their upgrade to Debian 12. This is the recommended method:
  https://github.com/SpiralLinux/SpiralLinux-project/wiki#upgrading-to-a-major-new-debian-stable-release
  
  I completely missed the Wiki 🤦‍♂️. Sorry for the redundant questions.
  I am actually not that much concerned with general OS updates - as you say, those systems are not heavily used and more or less isolated. BUT they are still used for web browsing. So the browser should be patched as good as possible.
  I'll give SpiralLinux a try in a VM to get a feeling for it. Maybe paired with the automatic update daemon I could then forget about the PC(s) in question for the next few years until a major version change is necessary (which then hopefully can be done remote as per your Wiki page).
  
  Another option might be to uninstall the DEB version of Firefox and install a browser from Flathub, and configure Gnome Software or KDE Discover to automatically download and install updates for Flatpaks.
  
  Uh, clever idea. Thanks!

40 comments