It allows you to run a Linux distribution integrated into your desktop environment. It uses podman (prefered) or docker containers to do this.
Essentially it creates a container that shares your $HOME and sets up the environment to integrate into your desktop as seamlessly as possible.
Typically people would use it with a “immutable” (read-only root) Linux distribution like Silverblue for building development environments. But you can use it with any Linux environment.
I run Silverblue on my desktop, but run Emacs out of a Arch Linux container. I launch Emacs with a .desktop file, which means it looks and behaves like a normal GUI application.
Flatpak is very good for desktop applications, but any sort of command line or daemon type service it falls short. Emacs, especially Emacs Doom, is very complicated with lots of dependencies in applications and LSP libraries and multiple languages and that sort of thing. Not super easy to use with Flatpak, but distrobox is ideal for that containerizing sort of thing.
ik this is a big ask but would you consider uploading a tutorial on youtube or some foss alternative on how to do that, apologies and thanks for the info
Distrobox is similar to Fedora’s Toolbox.
It allows you to run a Linux distribution integrated into your desktop environment. It uses podman (prefered) or docker containers to do this.
Essentially it creates a container that shares your $HOME and sets up the environment to integrate into your desktop as seamlessly as possible.
Typically people would use it with a “immutable” (read-only root) Linux distribution like Silverblue for building development environments. But you can use it with any Linux environment.
https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox
I run Silverblue on my desktop, but run Emacs out of a Arch Linux container. I launch Emacs with a .desktop file, which means it looks and behaves like a normal GUI application.
Flatpak is very good for desktop applications, but any sort of command line or daemon type service it falls short. Emacs, especially Emacs Doom, is very complicated with lots of dependencies in applications and LSP libraries and multiple languages and that sort of thing. Not super easy to use with Flatpak, but distrobox is ideal for that containerizing sort of thing.
ik this is a big ask but would you consider uploading a tutorial on youtube or some foss alternative on how to do that, apologies and thanks for the info