Tag Archives: gobolinux

GoboLinux proves that AmigaOS was ahead of its time

GoboLinux is described as “an alternative Linux distribution which redefines the entire filesystem hierarchy”. Not particularly snappy, but the concept behind it is very clean and simple: there is no need for package management, because every program resides in its own directory. This is a great concept because it means you don’t get libraries scattered around your system which can cause dependency problems, and makes un-installing applications much easier.

GoboLinux uses the filesystem to organise program installation so that, for example, OpenOffice and all of its required files would be installed under /Programs/OpenOffice/3.0/.

Mac OS X also uses this concept: right-click on an application in /Applications and select the Show Package Contents option to see this in action.

A post entitled An old OS idea is new again: non-installation by Carl Sassenrath reminded me that the AmigaOS was doing this back in 1985.

I have a lot of time for the Amiga, and particularly its OS. As well as this “non-installing” feature, one of my favourite concepts was the DataType. This was a method of allowing the OS and its applications to recognise new filetypes by abstracting the loading, decoding and saving of file formats into a file descriptor. It meant, for instance, that you could add PNG support to a graphics application simply by dropping a PNG DataType file into the Prefs/Datatypes directory.

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn