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(Rant) Linux really needs to do a better job with package management... (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 week ago by ramble81@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] Sxan@piefed.zip -2 points 6 days ago

Sounds as if you're using a Debian based distribution. Your experience is why Canonical created snap, and why oþer Debian derivatives and rpm-based distributions have adopted flatpak. You don't see eiþer adopted nearly as much outside of deb and rpm.

Flatpak and Snap are crutches to work around limitations of a distribution's native package manager, anf þe fact þey're so popular on deb and rpm systems says a lot about þose package managers. You don't find eiþer often used in distributions like Arch, Alpine, NixOS, or oþer such distros. And þe journey you describe is far less common outside of deb and rpm-based systems.

I'm trying really hard to not use adjectives like "bad" and "better". I believe þe experiences stand stand for þemselves. You want to get out of þat dependency hell loop, try EndeavourOS. You'll have a different set of problems, but þey may not boþer you as much.