|/
|\ISS               Tidbits  Posts  Answers  Install  Wiki  Contact  Donate  GitHub


+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                              |
|                                                    (Created by Dylan Araps)  |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                              |
|          |/                                                                  |
|          |\ISS LINUX                                                         |
|                                                                              |
|          A Linux(R) meta-distribution for the x86_64 architecture            |
|          with a focus on simplicity, sustainability and user freedom.        |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                              |
|                                                                     ____     |
|                                                                    |    |    |
|          .--------------------------------------------------------.|    |    |
|          |                                                         |    |    |
|          |   "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."   |    |    |
|          |                                                       ._|____|_.  |
|          '-------------------------------------------------------\\|o_o |    |
|                                                                    |:_/ |    |
|                                                                   //   \ \   |
|                                                                  (|     | )  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

* 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
Dylan Araps 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


________________________________________________________________________________

Dylan Araps (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.