this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It doesn't need fiddling, but it invites you to do so. And the default setup is hardly a best practice: swap on a partition, no FDE, no zram... missing FDE in particular will require you to reinstall, and you better have found out how to do proper backups including metadata.
I don't have FDE and I haven't had a need to reinstall. I'm running it on my desktop computer at home.
But that's during installation. Arch users will/should tell you that once you install your system and it works the way you want it to, you don't really need to "maintain it" unless you create maintenance work for yourself. Same for "fiddling".