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<header>
<h1 class="title">The Relation of Carbs and KISS</h1>
<p class="subtitle">posted on 2020-05-08</p>
</header><p>
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.
</p>

<div id="outline-container-org1398b0e" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org1398b0e">History</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org1398b0e">
<p>
I had the idea of creating my own Linux distribution since the May of 2019. Back
then, I had my own <a href="https://linuxfromscratch.org">Linux from Scratch</a> 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.
</p>

<p>
I had written some incomplete package managers (all named <code>fat</code>) 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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
One day on Reddit, I saw Dylan's post on <a href="https://reddit.com/r/unixporn">r/unixporn</a> about KISS, and I really
thought that it was interesting. Here is my <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/ducd34/sowm_kiss_d/f7lua7x">comment</a> 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.
</p>
</div>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-org5bd8596" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org5bd8596">Differences between KISS and Carbs</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org5bd8596">
<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>
</div>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-orgbc60244" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orgbc60244">What I'm working on now</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orgbc60244">
<p>
Currently I have a few projects that I'm working on for Carbs. These are,
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>
</div>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-org6b82fb9" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="org6b82fb9">What's up with all the init/service daemons?</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-org6b82fb9">
<p>
If you have ever checked the <a href="https://github.com/carbslinux/repository">repository</a>, 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 <a href="https://github.com/cemkeylan/shinit">init daemon</a> and <a href="https://github.com/cemkeylan/sysmgr">service supervisor</a>. I maintain all those packages on KISS
Community Repository as well with the exception of busybox. Those are, <code>busybox
init/runit</code>, <code>runit</code>, <code>sinit</code>, and <code>sysmgr</code>. I would definitely recommend
checking out <code>shinit</code> and <code>sysmgr</code>.
</p>
</div>
</div>

<div id="outline-container-orga3d4bff" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="orga3d4bff">Why I don't publicize Carbs</h2>
<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-orga3d4bff">
<p>
There are a couple of reasons I don't publicize Carbs a lot.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
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.
</p>

<p>
I think that's about it, if you have questions you can send me a mail, ping me
on IRC (my handle is <code>merakor</code>), and I will be happy to answer. Maybe your
question fits this post, and I can update it to thoroughly give an explanation.
</p>
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