junest VS AM

Explore the Junest Git project and follow the installation instructions. Activate the environment with junest setup and enable the running-from-host options.

PS: about JuNest (see https://github.com/fsquillace/junest ) this is a lightweight Arch Linux based distro that runs, without root privileges, on top of any other Linux distro. I also suggest to take a look at it.

About JuNest, all the apps installed using it whave always worked well for me. I've also wrote a script and done a pull request (rejected) for a tool that exports the apps to the launcher (as distrobox-export already do) https://github.com/fsquillace/junest/pull/322

JuNest https://github.com/fsquillace/junest looks very complete and good, though I dislike the approach of having to download or build an image. It would be nice to be able to do stuff like clone my filesystem (already ZFS) and branch an environment off that instantly.

I have already done a PR (see here)to the main repository https://github.com/fsquillace/junest but I still get errors in merging this utility during the automatic github-action's test/check. Any idea?

- I have pacman installed through junest. It works for command line programs, did not test for gui software

Have you tried installing JuNest? It will allow you to download, install, and use Arch's precompiled binaries directly (in addition to making it easy to compile, install, and use AUR packages).

As for the rest, I've been testing stuff with distrobox, junest (which is like distrobox, but for arch guest and without the container), and Conty (a lot like Junest but as a single hyper-compressed executable file). Anything requiring an escalation or wanting actual access to root remains an issue, but for the most part, it works well enough.

I recently discovered AM App Manager, it's app manager for appimages that have system integration and you can update all your apps with one command. Take a look at it's catalog to see if your app is supported.

I use https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM-Application-Manager to install App image, to include Neovim. By default it currently installs Version 10.0 and creates the symlinks.

I have been working on two CLI tools to install AppImage packages system wide and locall (they are AM and AppMan respectively). I've also written a website that acts as a catalog and a better source for downloading them all for real, https://portable-linux-apps.github.io !

In conclusion, I feel really confortable with docker/podman/distrobox/junest... but I also like a lot AppImage packages, so I'm trying to merge both. Something I learned all this time I use Linux is that there is no distro, no package format, no software... that can really satisfy my needs. The best hing I can do to solve this situation is to built it by myself (this is my main project, I named it "AM"). I spent two years to create what I like, after a decade as a common Linux user that uses what distro/package mantainers had to give, and this make me feel better. This last point is the main reason because all these distros and software solutions exists in GNU/Linux.

This is one of the 1700 installation scripts of my project.

I started writing AM/AppMan two years ago, it was just a custom script to install and always keep any Appimage package I needed updated to the latest version. Then become something much bigger.

Sure https://github.com/ivan-hc/AM-Application-Manager I have already tried with lowercases words but I don't like that, that's why I've chosen uppercased text. "De gustibus non est disputandum", Romans said.

I like containers, I've tried Junest and docker/podman/distrobox... also I work a lot with portable apps (see here) and I've also published a website for them (here) so I'm amazed on how you've built something that can merge them! I'll include it on my catalog (also I'm writing an installation script for it). Thank you!

Learn more at https://portable-linux-apps.github.io