4 ms·

Yeah, a general purpose distro would come with a desktop environment and you'd be able to run it on your PC as your main OS. Calling this general purpose is so

by jraph 4mo ago

Yeah, a general purpose distro would come with a desktop environment and you'd be able to run it on your PC as your main OS. Calling this general purpose is so misleading. Of course describing reality in titles would have the inconvenience of causing fewer clicks to these articles. The title on HN could be updated though.

gunalx 4mo ago
According to [1] the guidelines explicitly say to keep editorializing to a specified minimum, unless it is spam. Dont know it this title would allow editorialising [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jraph 4mo ago
  They say "please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize". I think it's misleading and linkbait. The mods would decide what to use instead, this could be "Azure Linux 4.0, Microsoft's Linux distribution for its cloud" or something like this.
  - graemep 4mo ago
    Especially given the article says this: > It is minimal on purpose. Azure Linux ships only what cloud and server workloads need. There is no desktop, no GUI, no general-purpose sprawl.
    - hmry 4mo ago
      Yep sure does. Love an article that contradicts its own title. Bonus points for that sentence sounding extremely AI-generated.
stuaxo 4mo ago
When he said "general purpose" I totally imagined a desktop environment.
rswail 4mo ago
It's general purpose in that it can run any Linux application in numerous different ways, containerized, as a VM, or on specific bare hardware. You and Microsoft are using the word "general purpose" to mean different things. This is not generally compatible with different hardware. Nor does it include things that could be considered applications, like desktop environments etc. It's not designed to be run by an end user on a desktop.
- embedding-shape 4mo ago
  Someone says: > Here is a general purpose Linux distribution, give it a try! Where does your mind go? That this is a server-only distribution meant for a specific provider? Or that it's something like Debian, that could be run on servers and desktops alike without much tinkering, or meant for any provider? FWIW, Microsoft themselves don't seem to call this a "general purpose Linux distribution", I could probably guess why, what Microsoft themselves say is "Purpose-Built for Azure" which sounds much more accurate. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/linuxandopensourceblog/announcing-azure-linux-4-0-purpose-built-for-azure-now-in-public-preview/4524267 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/linuxandopensourceb... I think the author might have confused (unintentionally or intentionally, who knows?) "general purpose" with "Purpose-Built for Azure", since Microsoft's own announcements get this right, while submission article is littered with this mistake.
  - tossandthrow 4mo ago
    Ubuntu server distributions are definitely general purpose.
    - thesuperbigfrog 4mo ago
      Most Linux server distributions would be expected to be headless. "General purpose" Linux distributions (not "server") typically would include a GUI desktop.
      - joxdosba 4mo ago

by jraph 4mo ago

gunalx 4mo ago

According to [1] the guidelines explicitly say to keep editorializing to a specified minimum, unless it is spam. Dont know it this title would allow editorialising [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

jraph 4mo ago
They say "please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize". I think it's misleading and linkbait. The mods would decide what to use instead, this could be "Azure Linux 4.0, Microsoft's Linux distribution for its cloud" or something like this.
- graemep 4mo ago
  Especially given the article says this: > It is minimal on purpose. Azure Linux ships only what cloud and server workloads need. There is no desktop, no GUI, no general-purpose sprawl.
  - hmry 4mo ago
    Yep sure does. Love an article that contradicts its own title. Bonus points for that sentence sounding extremely AI-generated.

stuaxo 4mo ago

When he said "general purpose" I totally imagined a desktop environment.

rswail 4mo ago

It's general purpose in that it can run any Linux application in numerous different ways, containerized, as a VM, or on specific bare hardware. You and Microsoft are using the word "general purpose" to mean different things. This is not generally compatible with different hardware. Nor does it include things that could be considered applications, like desktop environments etc. It's not designed to be run by an end user on a desktop.

embedding-shape 4mo ago
Someone says: > Here is a general purpose Linux distribution, give it a try! Where does your mind go? That this is a server-only distribution meant for a specific provider? Or that it's something like Debian, that could be run on servers and desktops alike without much tinkering, or meant for any provider? FWIW, Microsoft themselves don't seem to call this a "general purpose Linux distribution", I could probably guess why, what Microsoft themselves say is "Purpose-Built for Azure" which sounds much more accurate. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/linuxandopensourceblog/announcing-azure-linux-4-0-purpose-built-for-azure-now-in-public-preview/4524267 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/linuxandopensourceb... I think the author might have confused (unintentionally or intentionally, who knows?) "general purpose" with "Purpose-Built for Azure", since Microsoft's own announcements get this right, while submission article is littered with this mistake.
- tossandthrow 4mo ago
  Ubuntu server distributions are definitely general purpose.
  - thesuperbigfrog 4mo ago
    Most Linux server distributions would be expected to be headless. "General purpose" Linux distributions (not "server") typically would include a GUI desktop.
    - joxdosba 4mo ago