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by jolmg 1739 days ago
> I'm curious what linux distros don't have either some version of perl or python.

I imagine that DamnSmallLinux or TinyCoreLinux possibly don't have them by default. Their focus is to be as small as possible in order to download quickly and fit in a USB drive or CD. Their small size was more important back when speeds were slower and drives were smaller. They were also good for when you had a limited number of storage options and you wanted the running OS to fit completely in RAM (back when RAM was smaller).
2 comments
selfhoster11 1739 days ago
I don't think I ever ran TinyCore without immediately connecting it to the Internet to grab a bunch of packages. Puppy Linux included Perl in its base install at one time (I don't know if it still does), and Damn Small Linux was supposed to have a cut-down version of Perl included as well.
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jolmg 1739 days ago
Python definitely not, though.
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selfhoster11 1739 days ago
Yeah, but if you are happy to program in Perl, that's basically every major Linux distro covered. Anything using DEB or RPM packaging, any machine with Git installed (which includes Windows), plus the ones I already mentioned, already have access to Perl. This is a formidable installed base with no effort needed to install a runtime.
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jolmg 1739 days ago
I agree, but michaelcampbell's point seemed to be: why learn a language for its ubiquity, when more commonly used languages seem to be just as ubiquitous? So, I focused on how they're not that ubiquitous.
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selfhoster11 1739 days ago
I see what you mean. I guess what I was trying to say is that my position is close to that of michaelcampbell's, and that I wanted to emphasize how little portability is sacrificed by adopting this position on most environments one will ever work in.
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baktubi 1739 days ago
If you’re using DamnSmallLinux etc I’d imagine you can package your own awk quite easily! Perl would require a lot more packages. But all you need to do is copy a couple binaries right?
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jolmg 1739 days ago
Haven't used these distros since a decade or so ago.

Not sure why I'd have to package awk. Busybox's is probably sufficient for most uses, if the need ever arised, which I don't think it normally does when using these distros.

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baktubi 1739 days ago
Agreed. Not having enough space for awk would be daaaaamn small indeed.
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