A sample journey when trying to install software:
- Try your distros repos, it’s either not there or an older version
- Oh wait, you need to add their repo to your list and try again
- Actually, they don’t have a repo, but you can install this deb/rpm from their site
- Nevermind, it actually needs to be installed with pip to get the latest version
- Or wait, it was actually a rust package and needs cargo
- Well, this package is available as a snap
- Screw it, I’ll just build it from source…. Except the dependencies I need take me through the entire journey again
It’s crazy with a large package like mesa. It uses meson, which requires it be installed via pip, and also needs rust which is best installed via a snap, but then there are dependencies it needs that require multiple paths…
On Windows: find the msi or exe and be done with it.
I guess it mostly depends the type of apps one wishes to install.
Linux is certainly not perfect but:
sudo apt install list-of-all-the apps-I-needmakes it so easy to install all my apps on a new system. And for the rare few apps I need a more recent version than the one that is provided through the official repos, I can justflatpak install list-of-the-few-flatpaks-I-want. I don’t even have to type those commands, I keep a text file listing them and all the apps names.Well, that plus the freedom I have to do whatever I fancy with my OS, without its maker having anything to say about it, make it so much better in my eyes than the proprietary OS I used to use (I was a Mac user more than I ever was a Windows user, but it’s no secret Mac apps were even simpler to install than on Windows)
I also use a PPA for a rather niche app, never had any issue with it.