Question Linux on a USB or VM?

[mikeymikec]

I'm wondering, has anyone ever tried to make a "GitHub" store or something similar for Linux?

Basically a place where you could simply search for something like this OneDrive app, click install and it would determine your Linux version and run or (prompt you) all the correct commands to get the software installed, or would that be against the security idea of Linux?

The OneDrive app is a particularly unusual exception to the rule IMO.

On Linux Mint I can fire up the 'Software Manager' app, search for stuff and any result I click on will be installed by just clicking 'install'. On Linux Mint 21 there's also the 'synaptic package manager' which tends to be my first stop.

In terms of increasing difficulty, I don't mind a bit of sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb because usually that's all there is to it. Adding a trusted ppa repository then sudo apt install is barely any harder (two commands rather than one). I've got a note of the instructions for installing the Epson print/scan software as that's trickier. Any software that has to be completely manually installed I haven't had much luck with, nor have I done any compiling since I migrated. The instructions that I previously encountered for the OneDrive app were different and I didn't even bother trying them.

I'm a tad surprised that there isn't a OneDrive client easily available for Linux. I would have thought that any cloud storage provider - especially those who offer a "first taste is for free" service - would want to make their wares as easily available as possible. I briefly looked into cloud storage services for Linux here (some support is built-in, for example Google Drive):

Question - Cloud storage sync clients (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox) on Linux

I can't remember what piqued my curiosity to look into it today, though if I am to start offering Linux to customers then it's probably going to come up at some point. I'm running Linux Mint 21.1 Cinammon and had a quick play around (by starting up the 'Online Accounts' app that comes with the...

forums.anandtech.com

Dropbox has a client available through the 'Software Manager' app.

 

[biostud]

The OneDrive app is a particularly unusual exception to the rule IMO.

On Linux Mint I can fire up the 'Software Manager' app, search for stuff and any result I click on will be installed by just clicking 'install'. On Linux Mint 21 there's also the 'synaptic package manager' which tends to be my first stop.

In terms of increasing difficulty, I don't mind a bit of sudo dpkg -i packagename.deb because usually that's all there is to it. Adding a trusted ppa repository then sudo apt install is barely any harder (two commands rather than one). I've got a note of the instructions for installing the Epson print/scan software as that's trickier. Any software that has to be completely manually installed I haven't had much luck with, nor have I done any compiling since I migrated. The instructions that I previously encountered for the OneDrive app were different and I didn't even bother trying them.

I'm a tad surprised that there isn't a OneDrive client easily available for Linux. I would have thought that any cloud storage provider - especially those who offer a "first taste is for free" service - would want to make their wares as easily available as possible. I briefly looked into cloud storage services for Linux here (some support is built-in, for example Google Drive):

Question - Cloud storage sync clients (e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox) on Linux

I can't remember what piqued my curiosity to look into it today, though if I am to start offering Linux to customers then it's probably going to come up at some point. I'm running Linux Mint 21.1 Cinammon and had a quick play around (by starting up the 'Online Accounts' app that comes with the...

forums.anandtech.com

Dropbox has a client available through the 'Software Manager' app.

Dropbox is just really expensive compared to M365 family.

M365 6x1TB is 799DKK ~107€/year while Dropbox family 2TB is 203,88€/year

 

[biostud]

Also I found this guide for installing Linux Mint on my SATA SSD

Dual-boot Linux Mint 22 and Windows 11, with Mint on external drive

Step-by-step guide on how to dual-boot Linux Mint 22 and Windows 11, with Mint on an external drive. GRUB is installed on the drive Mint is installed on

linuxbsdos.com

is there anything else I should be aware of?

The last 1.5TB of my SATA SSD contains my photos and onedrive folders, which are in the cloud and just backed up on an external harddrive, but obviously I would prefer not to bork that partition in the process.

 

[manly]

I'm wondering, has anyone ever tried to make a "GitHub" store or something similar for Linux?

Basically a place where you could simply search for something like this OneDrive app, click install and it would determine your Linux version and run or (prompt you) all the correct commands to get the software installed, or would that be against the security idea of Linux?

Not really applicable for Linux. With Linux, you traditionally use "packages" and the new thing are Flatpaks/snaps.

The onedrive package is probably already in the Mint repository, so you can install it without the extra steps.
I'm on Ubuntu, and the package is a little older than the snap version. Given this choice, I would stick with the older package because snaps are arguably one of Ubuntu's weaker points. (The snap in the Ubuntu store is also marked as unofficial.)

macOS has Homebrew (or Mac Ports), which is a software package manager. But Linux has had package management already for decades, so it doesn't usually require this kind of source code-based deployment tool.

 

[biostud]

Not really applicable for Linux. With Linux, you traditionally use "packages" and the new thing are Flatpaks/snaps.

The onedrive package is probably already in the Mint repository, so you can install it without the extra steps.
I'm on Ubuntu, and the package is a little older than the snap version. Given this choice, I would stick with the older package because snaps are arguably one of Ubuntu's weaker points. (The snap in the Ubuntu store is also marked as unofficial.)

macOS has Homebrew (or Mac Ports), which is a software package manager. But Linux has had package management already for decades, so it doesn't usually require this kind of source code-based deployment tool.

I will investigate packages and flat paks/snaps as the words have no meaning to me.

But the onedrive software has the following disclaimer:

Although packages for the 'onedrive' client are available through distribution repositories, it is strongly advised against installing them. These distribution-provided packages are outdated, unsupported, and contain bugs and issues that have already been resolved in newer versions. They should not be used.

 

[mikeymikec]

Also I found this guide for installing Linux Mint on my SATA SSD

Dual-boot Linux Mint 22 and Windows 11, with Mint on external drive

Step-by-step guide on how to dual-boot Linux Mint 22 and Windows 11, with Mint on an external drive. GRUB is installed on the drive Mint is installed on

linuxbsdos.com

is there anything else I should be aware of?

The last 1.5TB of my SATA SSD contains my photos and onedrive folders, which are in the cloud and just backed up on an external harddrive, but obviously I would prefer not to bork that partition in the process.

Do you really have to install an OS on a USB drive? The latency is pants compared to SATA/NVMe.

My method of dual-boot is with two SSDs, first install Windows (with only one SSD connected), then install Linux on the second one. You can choose which drive to install the Grub boot manager on. When I migrated my setup from Haswell to AMD7000 I changed boot management to be hosted on the Linux SSD, so I could conceivably remove it and Windows would still be able to boot.

I have Secure Boot disabled, I can't remember if I needed to do that. Also the first time I did the dual-boot setup I had to disable 'fast boot' otherwise the Linux install couldn't write the boot management stuff properly. I enabled fast boot again after install IIRC.

One other bit of fun and games you might have to engage in is to faff around with how each OS does time sync, otherwise you might end up where one OS routinely puts the clock forward/back an hour. See how it goes and let me know if you need help with it, my linux journal probably has a note in about it.

 

[biostud]

Do you really have to install an OS on a USB drive? The latency is pants compared to SATA/NVMe.

My method of dual-boot is with two SSDs, first install Windows (with only one SSD connected), then install Linux on the second one. You can choose which drive to install the Grub boot manager on. When I migrated my setup from Haswell to AMD7000 I changed boot management to be hosted on the Linux SSD, so I could conceivably remove it and Windows would still be able to boot.

I have Secure Boot disabled, I can't remember if I needed to do that. Also the first time I did the dual-boot setup I had to disable 'fast boot' otherwise the Linux install couldn't write the boot management stuff properly. I enabled fast boot again after install IIRC.

One other bit of fun and games you might have to engage in is to faff around with how each OS does time sync, otherwise you might end up where one OS routinely puts the clock forward/back an hour. See how it goes and let me know if you need help with it, my linux journal probably has a note in about it.

I'm going to install it on my sata ssd. Which will be 1.5TB data partition, a Grub partition and then 500GB Linux Mint.

 

[biostud]

Hmm maybe I should wait until next week when we have Easter holidays so I have time when it goes wrong and my children wants to play on the computer....

 

[biostud]

I managed to get OneDrive running with a GUI on my VM.

Now I just need to figure out how to make a VM into a "physical" machine as everything i setup as I would like, and I don't have to start over, although I then can re-learn everything

 

[manly]

I will investigate packages and flat paks/snaps as the words have no meaning to me.

But the onedrive software has the following disclaimer:

Although packages for the 'onedrive' client are available through distribution repositories, it is strongly advised against installing them. These distribution-provided packages are outdated, unsupported, and contain bugs and issues that have already been resolved in newer versions. They should not be used.

There's a lot of diversity in Linux distros but for a long time, there are two main camps: Red Hat and Debian (Ubuntu is a less stable derivative of Debian). And for the most part, you could install software, provided by the distribution, using the command line. So for Debian and Ubuntu distros, it would be just a couple commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install onedrive

I understand in this particular case, the package maintainer recommends against the distro package, but usually that's not the case.
If Linux Mint is the LTS release from January, that's pretty recent so the distro's onedrive package might be okay.

Snaps and Flatpaks are a newer form of software packaging designed to solve a particular type of problem. Without getting into the weeds, it allows you to update something like Firefox more frequently. This is more inline with how consumers update desktop apps on Windows.

Out of curiosity, how did you install OneDriveGUI? (I assume that's separate.)

 

[biostud]

There's a lot of diversity in Linux distros but for a long time, there are two main camps: Red Hat and Debian (Ubuntu is a less stable derivative of Debian). And for the most part, you could install software, provided by the distribution, using the command line. So for Debian and Ubuntu distros, it would be just a couple commands.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install onedrive

I understand in this particular case, the package maintainer recommends against the distro package, but usually that's not the case.
If Linux Mint is the LTS release from January, that's pretty recent so the distro's onedrive package might be okay.

Snaps and Flatpaks are a newer form of software packaging designed to solve a particular type of problem. Without getting into the weeds, it allows you to update something like Firefox more frequently. This is more inline with how consumers update desktop apps on Windows.

Out of curiosity, how did you install OneDriveGUI? (I assume that's separate.)

Yup, I used the link to this:

GitHub - bpozdena/OneDriveGUI: A simple GUI for OneDrive Linux client with multi-account support.

A simple GUI for OneDrive Linux client with multi-account support. - bpozdena/OneDriveGUI

github.com

And just followed the instructions, and yet a new way to install software on Linux, using an "AppImage"

 

[Zepp]

Yup, I used the link to this:

GitHub - bpozdena/OneDriveGUI: A simple GUI for OneDrive Linux client with multi-account support.

A simple GUI for OneDrive Linux client with multi-account support. - bpozdena/OneDriveGUI

github.com

And just followed the instructions, and yet a new way to install software on Linux, using an "AppImage"

yeah, Snaps, Flatpaks and Appimages are like somewhat the distro agnostic version of .deb files

here is a good breakdown of Flatpaks vs Appimages from reddit:
"flatpaks and appimages are not made to serve the same niche. Appimages are essentially self-contained programs that work as-is and can be run on almost any distro with little dependencies. These are good for tools like gparted which are already feature complete (does not need frequent updates) and is not dependent on any internet functionality.

Flatpaks are more suited to regular use desktop apps which are still in active development and are being updated with new features and patches frequently, think web browsers / steam.

People prefer flatpaks on desktop because it is literally geared towards desktops. Appimages fill the role of portable self-contained programs and they fill the role well, but ultimately these frameworks are not meant for the same exact thing."

Snaps are Canonical/Ubuntu proprietary format and connect to their servers, I dont have much experience with them but as far as I know they otherwise work much like flatpaks.

 

[biostud]

With Microsoft starting to close mail pr. Trumps orders, I'm really starting to consider finding a new drive/mail service.

Proton really seems to be the best in regards to security. As start I would get a duo subscription, and later a family when my children would need one, but it I currently pay ~100€/year for a office365 family pack 6x1TB without co-pilot, while proton would cost me ~180€/year for 1TB shared. and family with 3TB would be ~290€.

Am I too paranoid, or is it better to start the move before it is too late?

Create a free email account or choose a paid plan | Proton

Proton Mail provides encrypted, secure email for over 100 million people and businesses. Free and paid plans available.

proton.me

 

[manly]

Flatpaks/Snaps are nothing like .deb or .rpm packages, and I wouldn't draw such a comparison.

With Microsoft starting to close mail pr. Trumps orders, I'm really starting to consider finding a new drive/mail service.

Proton really seems to be the best in regards to security. As start I would get a duo subscription, and later a family when my children would need one, but it I currently pay ~100€/year for a office365 family pack 6x1TB without co-pilot, while proton would cost me ~180€/year for 1TB shared. and family with 3TB would be ~290€.

Am I too paranoid, or is it better to start the move before it is too late?

Create a free email account or choose a paid plan | Proton

Proton Mail provides encrypted, secure email for over 100 million people and businesses. Free and paid plans available.

proton.me

I don't feel you need to rush, but if you're sure you want to migrate off Microsoft, any time (including soon) is good.

A few years ago, Google notified a small sliver of grandfathered G Suite users that they were ending the free tier. These early adopter accounts came with generous quotas, and were popular for personal use. So I went ahead and migrated my mail hosting to a suitable alternative (Zoho Mail). Some weeks later, Google reversed the decision and left these grandfathered accounts as "Legacy G Suite." Nothing against Zoho Mail, but I migrated it back.

 

[lxskllr]

Am I too paranoid, or is it better to start the move before it is too late?

That's up to you and your wallet. As an American, I don't trust American services, and that started before Trump. It's also endless bullshit with the big American companies. They degrade service, and while many times it can be worked around, I consider it a hostile act, and I don't have the patience to play games with my software. I can tolerate technical deficiencies much more readily than artificial restrictions.

 

[manly]

Go, Denmark!

Denmark Is Dumping Microsoft Office and Windows For LibreOffice and Linux - Slashdot

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Denmark's Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stage, has announced that the Danish government will start moving away from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Why? It's not because open-source is better, although I would argue that it is, but because...

linux.slashdot.org