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+#+TITLE: The Relation of Carbs and KISS
+#+AUTHOR: Cem Keylan
+#+DATE: <2020-05-08 Fri>
+#+ALIASES[]: /blog/20200508.html
+
+Since I have forked KISS, I have received many questions that can be summarized
+as "Why?". I have realized that I never truly answered this question. That's the
+reason I am writing this post, to give some background on Carbs, and some
+differences between KISS Linux and Carbs Linux for anyone who may be wondering.
+Perhaps I could make this a "FAQ" page later on.
+
+** History
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: history
+:END:
+
+I had the idea of creating my own Linux distribution since the May of 2019. Back
+then, I had my own [[https://linuxfromscratch.org][Linux from Scratch]] build, and I wanted to slim it down my
+own way and replace the software (with musl,sbase,etc.). The name Carbs Linux
+was in my mind since then. I wanted to write my own package manager, but I
+wasn't satisfied with anything I had built.
+
+I had written some incomplete package managers (all named =fat=) and I quickly
+threw them into the trash can, where they honestly belonged. I would want to
+share them with you for laughs, but my hard-drive got wiped and I have a problem
+of not doing an "initial commit" until a program I write is in a usable state.
+
+I have obtained the 'carbslinux.org' domain name in September 2019, but then
+life got on the way, and I stopped for a long time.
+
+One day on Reddit, I saw Dylan's post on [[https://reddit.com/r/unixporn][r/unixporn]] about KISS, and I really
+thought that it was interesting. Here is my [[https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/ducd34/sowm_kiss_d/f7lua7x][comment]] to Dylan on that post. I
+checked out the package manager and the repository. The packaging system was
+extremely clean and well-thought. I decided to give it a go and fork KISS.
+
+** Differences between KISS and Carbs
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: differences-between-kiss-and-carbs
+:END:
+
+Now, I still baffle when people ask me this question. My intention was never to
+create a distribution with specific differences between KISS. My intention was
+being my own BDFL of a distribution I maintain. There are lots of differences
+between the main repositories, but they are subtle and not worth talking about.
+I personally never even installed KISS Linux on my system. So Carbs, isn't
+something like a downstream fork of KISS, it is just a distribution that was
+initially based on KISS.
+
+I try to contribute as much as I can to KISS Linux. I think that it is a
+brilliant distribution, and it was a great starting point for Carbs. I am really
+grateful to Dylan and all the other contributors.
+
+** What I'm working on now
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: what-im-working-on-now
+:END:
+
+Currently I have a few projects that I'm working on for Carbs. These are,
+
+A BSD port for Carbs. For a while, I have been working on BSD compatibility on
+my fork of the [package manager]. I have tested, without any more issues, on
+OpenBSD and FreeBSD. The biggest issues remaining are choosing a vendor for BSD,
+packaging the BSD source, and providing a minimal base (like busybox for BSD).
+If you aren't familiar with BSD, it has a single source code for all of the
+utilities (kernel, command line programs, etc.). Contributions (even chipping in
+ideas) are very welcome.
+
+Adding binary package distribution support natively to the package manager.
+Biggest issue in small/old computers are compile times. This feature is for the
+bigger packages such as webkit, clang, llvm that take a considerable amount of
+time. Some computers with low memories cannot even compile firefox/webkit.
+
+Adding rsync repository support to the package manager. This is not a current
+issue, but rather a futureproofing. As time passes, distribution repositories
+grow larger. KISS and Carbs are young distributions without this problem right
+now. But in something like 5 years, this size will presumably increase to
+hundreds of megabytes. At that point it will be pointless to have the repository
+sources unless you specifically need them.
+
+** What's up with all the init/service daemons?
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: whats-up-with-all-the-init-service-daemons
+:END:
+
+If you have ever checked the [[https://github.com/carbslinux/repository][repository]], you may have noticed that there are
+lots of init/service related packages. I have had my fair share of time with all
+of them, and it is an area that I am really interested in. I have even written
+my own [[https://github.com/cemkeylan/shinit][init daemon]] and [[https://github.com/cemkeylan/sysmgr][service supervisor]]. I maintain all those packages on KISS
+Community Repository as well with the exception of busybox. Those are, =busybox
+init/runit=, =runit=, =sinit=, and =sysmgr=. I would definitely recommend
+checking out =shinit= and =sysmgr=.
+
+** Why I don't publicize Carbs
+:PROPERTIES:
+:CUSTOM_ID: why-i-dont-publicize-carbs
+:END:
+
+There are a couple of reasons I don't publicize Carbs a lot.
+
+KISS is the better alternative in terms of support and community. I work on
+maintaining this distribution just as hard as Dylan, but in the end, Carbs is
+based on his original hard work, and I believe that he deserves the recognition
+more than I do.
+
+Since I cannot answer questions like "What is the difference?", I prefer staying
+as the silent sibling project of KISS Linux. Plus, there is no point in dividing
+the newly-emerging community in half.
+
+That's not because I don't have ideas for the future of Carbs, I do. I just
+think that I will deserve the recognition once those above lists are checked.
+
+I think that's about it, if you have questions you can send me a mail, ping me
+on IRC (my handle is =merakor=), and I will be happy to answer. Maybe your
+question fits this post, and I can update it to thoroughly give an explanation.