[Bio-linux-list] The reports of Bio-Linux's death are greatly exaggerated

[Tony Travis]

On 15/02/17 10:03, Enrique Ortega wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I do agree with Raony in maybe skyping 16.04 and going straight for
> 18.04 LTS. Mate is a very good option, It's compatible with X2Go (as
> well as this other window managers
> <https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/x2go-server-ubuntu-14-04/#desktop-bindings>) 
> so for learning purposes it's makes biologists more comfortable than a
> terminal through ssh.

Hi, Enrique.

As I said in my reply to Raony, I don't see the point of developing for
18.04 LTS because and End-of-Life hasn't been announced for 16.04 LTS
and even 14.04 LTS is supported until April 2019...

> It's true that through Patreon the project can be financed, even partially.

I'd not heard about Patreon before, but after looking just now it seems
more about supporting 'content' creators than software developers...

> I hadn't heard about DebianMed, it looks amazing. The only downside I
> see is that a boot key on debian doesn't allow to have a persistent
> space for the user (updating/installing packages, adding/modifying
> files). I'm a group person, so i'll go with the choice of the group.

You can create a 'persistent' USB 'live' system with persistence for any
distribution: The 'persistence' is a kernel option and the casper FS
automatically looks for "casper-rw" to use as a COW (Copy On Write)
partition. Take a look at these tools:

> https://unetbootin.github.io/
> https://www.pendrivelinux.com/

> In my previous position the SysAdmin used modules
> <http://modules.sourceforge.net/> to keep a tidy $PATH and a responsive
> terminal. It allows also to install different versions of softwares
> (like compilers or java versions required to use a software).

Debian/Ubuntu uses profile 'fragments' to allow the package manager to
add and remove components to PATH and other environmental variables in:

  /etc/profile.d

This is where changes should be made, and there is also a mechanism to
select 'alternatives' e.g.:

> ajt at beluga:~$ sudo update-alternatives --list java
> /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java
> /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/bin/java

Although, in the case of Java, this is better done using:

> ajt at beluga:~$ sudo update-java-alternatives --list
> java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64       1081       /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64
> java-8-oracle                  1081       /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle

[for more details use: man update-alternatives]

> I'm very optimistic in the future of bio-linux (of debianMed). It's an
> amazing time saving tool when you need to deploy tools and are too noob
> (like me) or too busy to install and configure each tool one by one. And
> the tutorials included are great !

Glad you find Bio-Linux useful and thanks for your support!

  Tony.

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