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Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux

167 points · 111 comments · bketelsen

  1. dathinab · · focus · HN ↗
    How does it differ from existing tools kinda do exactly same, like e.g. toolbx. (And to a slightly lesser degree flatpack, snap, etc.)?

    And what prevented adopting/supporting existing projects, instead of further tool ecosystem fragmentation? (kinda the same question, just differently phrased)

    1. philips · · focus · HN ↗
      Ha! I wrote the first commit to CoreOS&#x27;s toolbox in 2014: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;coreos&#x2F;toolbox&#x2F;commit&#x2F;dc4aa0b14bceafd6afaf144c54cf66156109e220" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;coreos&#x2F;toolbox&#x2F;commit&#x2F;dc4aa0b14bceafd6afa...

      And then I read your comment and my first reaction was, oh, they typoed toolbox. But, nope, Red Hat created toolbx which confusingly has the CLI binary of `toolbox`: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;containertoolbx.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;containertoolbx.org

      1. bketelsen · · focus · HN ↗
        Hi Brandon!
        1. philips · · focus · HN ↗
          Oh, hey Brian! I like the project. How is it related to reproducible builds though?
          1. bketelsen · · focus · HN ↗
            ... it&#x27;s not. Just another way to keep my host clean and do the dirty work somewhere else. Where did reproducible builds come through? Another comment?
            1. philips · · focus · HN ↗
              I just had never heard of &quot;frostyard&quot; and the github.com&#x2F;frostyard page says: Foundation for Reproducible OS Technologies
    2. bketelsen · · focus · HN ↗
      Most of these tools you mention are designed to work best as an overlay to your $HOME. toolbx, distrobox, and to some extent flatpak and snap. NSL is built to give you the &quot;pet&quot; virtual machines with limited integration to the host - you can get to the host filesystem if you want, and you can use the host&#x27;s Wayland session. I think a better comparison would be using NSL instead of using a remote computer or VM.
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