I’m talking about things like “python3-blabla” and “libsomething”. How bad would it be if nobody used these library-packages and everyone just added all kinds of libraries as part of an application’s package?
I’m talking about things like “python3-blabla” and “libsomething”. How bad would it be if nobody used these library-packages and everyone just added all kinds of libraries as part of an application’s package?
But you do get the simplicity, and following the real ‘free’ part of Foss you get the choice to do the fancy nerd magic if you want.
But for most of us flatpaks are readily updated and easily installed, idfc about no gtk magicians spells.
I think its a major step towards general linux acceptance
That’s interesting. Snap and Flatpack seem to me to be mainly of benefit to the distro maintainers; I don’t see much, if any, benefit to users.
Why do you think it’ll affect end-user acceptance of Linux?
End-users just see “huh, X distro doesn’t have Y app”. Application availability is a major component of adoption of a platform.
Oh, I thought you were saying that it would make Linux more mainstream. Sorry, I misunderstood you.
Yeah, it is going to drive more new Linux users to Ubuntu; personally, I think that’s a core motivation in its deaign.
As a mid-power user I almost exclusively use them just because I want my software up to date. for example using discover I can update all my godot installs on all my devices to the latest features I’m seeing everyone rave about. (this is mainly for the maintainers but it trickles down)
Looking back into when I first was dipping my toes in linux though things like missing libraries and other scary looking apt errors essentially meant I didn’t go further from there and accepted not installing the package. I could see this frustrating lots of users early and causing them to return to windows as I did for a bit.
edit to add on: I still consider it very important to have the option to install it through a deb let’s say, but more alike how one can compile from source with a thousand flags if they choose - just as long as its a choice
Do you mean Snap/Flatpack? If so, you will probably have even more up-to-date software if you used a rolling release distro like Arch.
In my experience Arch is pretty unstable, though. I’ve never had an Arch installation that didnt break by the end of the month. Flatpaks allow me to use a stable base like Debian while having certain programs more up to date.
Exactly this is why I haven’t made the switch yet.
Its like letting a package be managed per package instead of per distro, giving its devs some more fine grain control on stability vs update speed