this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Yeah I hear that. I will say aptitude made my life a lot easier in terms of installing things with its recommended fixes. Also good software documentation should have a "Getting Started" section that gives you step by step instructions for each OS/Distro of how to install it. If it doesn't... Well maybe that software isn't worth installing anyway 🤷♂️
I mean there's that, but it's a lot of work for a dev too.
I would rather Linux just be able to detect what's missing and install it for me. In the case of a lot of missing components, what it says is missing will be named completely different from the package you need to install which makes it really hard.
It was always nice with windows installers because they would come with the needed components, or windows would just prompt to install them automatically.
I guess that's essentially what Flatpak solves!
That's what aptitude does. It says "these things are dependencies that are missing. Do you want to install them?" And you can say yes, no, or ask it to try to find a different fix. And idk what you mean by that's a lot of work. If a dev can't be bothered to tell people how to install their program then idk how they expect people to use their software.
That does happen, but Linux doesn't have anything to do with installing packages, your package manager does. If this package was installed through apt for example, it would also download all of the dependencies. But this package is using a makefile to build and install, therefore it has nothing to do with your package manager.
Tldr: use the package manager, and don't use DIY packages if you don't want to DIY
Additional package managers like flatpak and nix solve different issues:
dependency mismatch: let's say libreoffice and this package require a different version of glibc -> flatpak downloads both versions and symlinks them in a different location in order for each package to have the correct version while not impacting your system and the glibc your DE is using
newer packages: Debian freezes packages for 2+ years, flatpak gives you a fresh version
easier packaging for developers: you can package for flatpak instead of having to maintain packages for every popular package manager and distro
There are two specific problems I see here for the mentioned binaries.
rpmordebthe system package manager could/does handle. Thus, the package manager of your system does neither know that you've installed this binary nor what it depends on. The developer could have at least mentioned on which exact system the Linux binaries are supposed to work, e.g. Ubuntu 22.04, so that the user knows, that they might have issues running it on a different system.Nonetheless, as a Linux user, you are encouraged to build directly from source.
Yeah screw that lol, I want my OS to just work and be easy to use with minimal fuss.