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 miss downloading random executables and possibly infecting my OS” No I totally feel the nostalgia. :P
Seriously though, most of what I need is available in my package repo and software store. With flatpak, there’s a plethora of stuff I can install.
If you’re missing random exes, I’d like to know what it is you’re trying to install, because that’s like owning an android and complaining that what you want isn’t lm the play store and wishing you could pull any old apk. (Which btw, you can).