I’m trying it out for the first time and reading the handbook here: https://docs.vanillaos.org/handbook/en/updates
However, I noticed the page says:
This guide is for Kinetic (22.10), not Orchid.
And when I tried running command to check for updates, I got this.
$ vso update-check
Error: unknown command "update-check" for "vso"
Run 'vso --help' for usage.
ERROR unknown command "update-check" for "vso"
I could wait for the normal update job to run, but I’m being impatient. :)
sorry its OT but what has been your experience so far with VanillaOS? I remember there was a lot of discussion about it a while back but haven’t heard much since then.
I’m like 12 hours in. It’s not going too well right now… the biggest con is that there is basically no documentation for Orchrid…
My use case: I have Obsidian notes synced with Syncthing to a server only accessible via Tailscale. I was able to get Syncthing working by installing Syncthing GTK from Flathub (a workaround, I couldn’t figure out how to install Syncthing the normal way). But I’m still out of luck because I can’t reach the server.
The only way to install Tailscale is via a custom image it seems. :(
The other thing I haven’t figured out is if it’s possible to use
wl-copy
to copy text from a terminal. The terminal app basically opens into a container. It seems likewl-copy
can’t break out of the container and affect the host clipboard.The container/isolation stuff seems kewl in theory, but so far I’m finding it pretty annoying.
I’m experimenting with this because I was wondering if VanillaOS would be a good fit for my parents, which actually, it might be. They have very basic needs. All their apps are on Flathub. But for me… I think I may just go back to Arch.
I had the same suspicion that it probably doesn’t work well for seasoned linux users but its nice to see its otherwise fine. I have used ublue in the past and my experience was similar.
Thanks for the comprehensive answer.
I’ve been using it for just over 6 months and it’s perfectly fine as a desktop distribution. I’m enjoying that it’s based on Debian Sid and I get a more up to date GNOME release than I would have with Ubuntu or Debian. The update process is a bit slow but you can just leave it downloading in the background and then reboot when it’s ready. If you know that you want an immutable desktop distro based on Debian then I would definitely recommend it.
If you’re using it for development then it’s a bit more complicated as you’ll need to get used to working in a distrobox container and understanding when it can and can’t access the host system or communicate with programs running on the host system.
If you have the time and basic understanding to be able to switch your dev workflow to run inside a container, or if your dev environment never needs to interact with the base system that you’re running it on, then it’s perfectly usable for dev work - just a bit of a learning curve.
Thanks, didn’t knew it was based on Debian Sid though that makes a lot of sense for an immutable distro since I assume you can easily rollback in case of issues.
Oh, wait. Derp. Sorry. I need to RTFM.
$ vso sys Execute system commands, such as upgrading the system Usage: vso sys [command] Aliases: sys, sys-upgrade Available Commands: check Check for system updates upgrade Execute system commands, such as upgrading the system Flags: -h, --help help for sys Use "vso sys [command] --help" for more information about a command.
The command got renamed.