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.
Yeah, that was my first thought. I’m a Debian user by choice (25+ years experience with it) and largely prefer the “older but extremely stable” package management method they have employed for so long. Same reason I drive Toyotas; they tend to use older-but-proven tech.
This reason is why Debian has the “rock solid” reputation in the first place. It’s baffling that there are people who refuse to accept that fact.