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    |\ISS               Tidbits  Posts  Answers  Install  Wiki  Contact  Donate

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    |                                                    (Created by [Name Redacted])  |
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    |          |\ISS LINUX                                                         |
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    |          A Linux(R) meta-distribution for the x86_64 architecture            |
    |          with a focus on simplicity, sustainability and user freedom.        |
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    |          .--------------------------------------------------------.|    |    |
    |          |                                                         |    |    |
    |          |   "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."   |    |    |
    |          |                                                       ._|____|_.  |
    |          '-------------------------------------------------------\\|o_o |    |
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    * Overview ............................................................... [001]
    * Software Distribution Model ............................................ [002]
    * The-Official Repositories .............................................. [003]
    * Package System ......................................................... [004]
    * Package Manager ........................................................ [005]
    * Further Reading ........................................................ [006]

    [001] Overview
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    Kiss Linux™ is a meta-distribution for the x86_64 architecture with a focus on
    simplicity, sustainability and user freedom. The project was created by
    [Name Redacted] who also acts as its sole developer and BDFL [0].

    The distribution is designed to be maintainable by a single person and to this
    end has no infrastructure, backend or monetary running costs. Further, all
    installations of KISS contain everything needed to continue its development.

    The user is provided with three things.

    1. The Official Repositories - An extensible base including a fully X11-less
       Wayland environment, modern web browser, media player and everything needed
       for this system to rebuild (and update) itself (in under 120 packages).

    2. The Package Management System - A pleasant to work with and concise
       package format powered by a small, portable and self-contained package
       manager (written in POSIX shell).

    3. The Freedom To Go It Alone - Users can choose to maintain their system
       themselves thus freeing them from all external influence. The system then
       belongs to the user and they become totally self-reliant.

    [002] Software Distribution Model
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    The distribution is "rolling release" [1] (install once, update perpetually)
    with the compilation process taking place on the user's machine. Updates to the
    distribution merely contain instructions for how each package is built.

    This model gives the user control over the compilation process while also
    removing the need for the distribution to have the necessary infrastructure
    to churn out and distribute binaries on a daily basis.

    [003] The Official Repositories
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    The problem with monolithic repositories is that they have no clear end. They
    have infinite growth possibility, very broad scope and rely on volunteer effort
    to keep everything fresh. They become harder to maintain over time and unless
    their growth is checked, will eventually become unsustainable.

    Kiss Linux's repositories are instead designed to be small and understandable.
    Instead of attempting to package the world they act as an extensible base which
    users can build upon to suit their needs.

    To best illustrate, here is the entire thing (121 components) (24/09/2021).

    baseinit baselayout binutils bison bkeymaps busybox curl flex gcc git grub kiss
    linux-headers m4 make musl openssl pigz xz zlib adwaita-icon-theme alsa-lib
    alsa-utils atk bzip2 cairo cbindgen ccache clang cmake dhcpcd dosfstools
    e2fsprogs efibootmgr efivar eiwd expat ffmpeg firefox firefox-privacy
    fontconfig freetype-harfbuzz gdk-pixbuf glib gnugrep gnupg1 gtk+3
    hicolor-icon-theme intel-vaapi-driver json-c kirc lame libass libelf libffi
    libjpeg-turbo libogg libpng libtheora libudev-zero libva libva-utils libvorbis
    libvpx libwebp llvm man-pages mandoc mdevd mesa meson mold mpv mutt nasm ncurses
    nodejs opendoas openresolv openssh opus pango pcre perl pkgconf python rust
    samurai scdoc sqlite ssu strace ttf-croscore tzdata util-linux vim
    wpa_supplicant x264 x265 xvidcore zstd foot foot-pgo grim libdrm libinput
    libpciaccess libseat libxkbcommon pixman slurp sway sway-no-seat sway-tiny
    wayland wayland-protocols wbg wl-clipboard wlroots wlsunset xkeyboard-config

    The distribution explicitly excludes logind, udev, dbus, systemd, polkit,
    pulseaudio, electron and all desktop environments. This software is either
    with lock-in, too complex or otherwise out of scope.

    Further reading: @/wiki

    [004] Package System
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    The system is based around directories and files. A repository (directory)
    contains packages (directories) which contain information (files). Repositories
    can be stored anywhere and their use is determined by a search path.

    As software is compiled locally, there is no line drawn between the "frontend"
    and "backend", they are one and the same. Learning the package management
    system also teaches you how to develop the distribution.

    * repository/
        * package-a/
            * build
            * checksums
            * depends
            * sources
            * version
        * package-b/
            * build
            * checksums
            * patches/
                * 0001-fix-segfault.patch
                * 0002-no-x11.patch
            * sources
            * version

    Each file serves a specific purpose and files can be omitted when the package
    has no use for them. Files can be symbolically linked between packages to
    deduplicate otherwise identical information.

    Further reading: @/wiki/package-system

    [005] Package Manager
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    The package manager (also named 'kiss') is a tiny, self-contained and POSIX
    compliant shell script written with portability in mind. It should run in all
    environments with a POSIX shell and core utilities.

    There is no configuration file and no weird arguments to memorize. Interaction
    is done via "actions" with each action taking a list of packages to operate on.
    Each action also has a single letter alias (build == b).

    * kiss [a|b|c|d|i|l|r|s|u|U|v] [pkg]...
    * alternatives   List and swap alternatives
    * build          Build packages
    * checksum       Generate checksums
    * download       Download sources
    * install        Install packages
    * list           List installed packages
    * remove         Remove packages
    * search         Search for packages
    * update         Update the system and repositories
    * Upgrade        Upgrade the system
    * version        Package manager version

    Further reading: @/wiki/package-manager

    [006] Further Reading
    ________________________________________________________________________________

    - @/answers               - Answers to the most common questions.
    - @/wiki                  - General distribution documentation.
    - @/wiki/package-system   - The package management system in detail.
    - @/wiki/package-manager  - The package manager's documentation.
    - @/wiki/website          - About the website itself.
    - @/contact               - Get in touch with Kiss Linux.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictator_for_life
    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release

    ________________________________________________________________________________

    [Name Redacted] (C) 2019-2021

    The registered trademark Linux(R) is used pursuant to a sublicense from the
    Linux Foundation, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark
    on a worldwide basis.