It's too funny to me that Arch of all distributions attracts the thigh /Unix socks crowd (for lack of better word). Nothing about Arch stands out for me in that regard, there's no social statement or anything, and when I was more active in the community, it wasn't known for that.
I was deep enough into Arch to run my own private repository using aurutils, but no thighs :(
I rarely encounter them. But they usually work when I do. But, ugh, they're just kinda gross. Like, is this a .exe? No thank you. Don't give me windows trauma.
Clearly in $HOME/Downloads/ and forget that you left it there. Then use app(3).AppImage the next time when you redownload it. Keeps you running the most up to date version. It's flawless.
I stick them in /home/bin/ like I would for a compiled app. I found a forum for mint saying thats the expectation for user apps with no specific install location, which is pretty much the issue, anyway.
I like appimages that are packages on AUR installed and updated using yay, so that I never ever learn that it is in fact a appimage disguised as repo package.
Are you running on a really space constrained system? I Used an old Chromebook with only 16Gb of storage for a bit, and to me it's kinda fun to figure out alternative solutions and applications that can make a system like that work. But when I've got a system with 500GB+, I say who cares about the space packages take up.
TBH if it's just for that I'd rather use nix packages.
But flatpak's sandboxed app are better for sus packages or proprietary-might-spy-everywhere packages.
I've had the opposite experience with flatpaks that I have with snaps. I don't really use them much. But when I see that as an option I use it and it just works. Definitely a fan as a USER of them. I'm sure people have their complaints as users and developers. But I definitely have to say it's been positive so far. Which is a rare consistency in the life of installing packages.
They work most of the time and I liked them, until I installed my first app that did not work because of the container thing and learning about and using flatseal ate so much of my time, that I never did it again.
I only use yay to install stuff now. And if not on AUR I make (copy and adjust existing) my own PKGBUILD, or find one on a random page of a user who did not publish to AUR yet.
Last week was the first time I think I've ever got a random Internet tarball to configure, make and make install. Program even did what it was supposed to too. I was amazed.
I mean technically so are repos to some extent. Many of them have very few maintainers and you are basically just blindly trusting that they won't both miss anything malicious nor be the cause of it.
A little safer but not some ultimate Bastion of safety
The last picture in the meme always bothered me, because the sequence doesn't make any sense physically. (Popping the rake from mid air and doing the wrong flip and such)
So, I went on to find the sequence that I believe it was drawn from.
I know it's completely off-topic, but anyway. No, I'm fine with the rake. That's what's makes it funny.
It's the drawing of the skater that is too good, and that doesn't add up with the other details being wrong. Someone who can draw a skater that good wouldn't make the other things that wrong or even random.
The rake is drawn as doing a frontside shove-it, popped from mid-air and failing because of gravity suddenly changing in the middle of the sequence.
The skater is "obviously" doing a varial heelflip instead of a frontside shove-it.
So that's the clue to why I thought it was drawn off an actual picture.
That the background is also a copy of the original only reaffirms my theory.
In hindsight I can also see that the skater is obviously Andrew Reynolds. The tuck and landing is his signature style.
I honestly can't remember the last time I've come across a package that I needed that so obscure that it wasn't found somewhere as at the very least an appimage, if not a flatpak. I haven't had to build from source in I don't even know how many years now.
True. But I was coming at if from the perspective of an every day user coming from Windows. email, word processing, internet, etc... Even gaming and photo editing.
The more professional the needed software gets, of course the more obscure it gets.
I think it depends on the distro. Nixos is pretty bad for this if you want to try out a project that is really new. If you wait a month or two a flake usually comes out somewhere.
General use package? Sure
Specialized package to do something specific in a specific field? Good luck.
I still have flashbacks of installing a c++ library which had to be transpired (or whatever the term is) to c# for another library to work, and having to go manually fix several function and type declarations manually to make it work. And we are talking about the golden standard library in the field...
I installed and then ran Gentoo for about 9 months back when it first came out, before Robbins stepped down. I remember the install was pretty involved, but after that it was a pretty sweet system. I keep saying I'm going to go back to it, but just can't be bothered anymore. As good as it was 20 years ago, I'm sure it's even better now.
LMAO, back in my Slackware days (3.4, 3.6, 4.0, 7.0), If I had to build from source, which was most things,
step1: ./configure
step2: install the missing package
step3: goto step1 until no missing packages identified
step4: make
step5: make install
Sometimes my packages were too old, So I would just go to step1 for each package that also needed to be newer. I'm not even a Linux Expert, and I definitely wasn't a Linux Expert then. All the building from source helps me jump into software projects and become productive real quick though.
As a non IT person I find Linux way better for installing software. The sort of apps non IT people use. The Software store has most of what I need. There rest I install the Windows way. From a website. Apps with a Linux version almost always detect and offer a Linux button to click to install. I wouldn't know what to do if that didn't work. Ditch that application I guess. My distros are pretty standard. Not hacked about. My apps are not too weird. I've been doing it this way for 14+ years. Never needed the CLI either.
If it would be that easy. The problem I had was, that I installed a dependency using my package manager, but to compile my originally wanted software I had to provide a cmake file (of the dependency I installed via my package manager) to the compiler, which I of course did not have.
This often comes with the *-dev version of the dependency. The normal one contains the binaries, the dev version includes headers and often the FindPackage
it is no big deal if the package dependency for a library just got swept up in the upgrade cycle. if the needed function call didn't change, no problems. else you just get a linker error.
“But that will use 2GB when a system package will use 34MB. Yeah, I hate that something that should be small is using 2GB of space.”
"The space consumption isn't my preference either, but I'd rather be using the app than fighting dependencies. I wish you luck with your dependency chain then."
Sure but this is exactly what Windows and Macos apps do as well. So you're basically complaining a package doesn't do better than industry standard.
Sure it can be better and wanting things to be more efficient is perfectly calid, I'm just asking to set more reasonable expectations.
Of it's in your native repo? Perfect! If not, you have the option to waste some disk space or taking the effort to run configure && make && make install
make: error: libX11.so permission denied or not found
make: failed, something something finishing remaining jobs.
dear god what does it mean
I get that your issue was probably more nuanced than that, but what's so confusing about inatalling missing build dependencies? If projects have a build guide sometimes they'll straight up give you an install command for your distribution. If not, it's up to you to find the package names corresponding to what you need to install since they can differ from distro to distro.
More like:
No system package -> installing from user repos -> appimage -> flatpak -> creating your own package -> using a VM with a distro that has the package -> not installing package
If after that you still don't have it, it wasn't meant to be it's probably just not very good software.
Personally go:
Flatpak (I like easily controlling an apps premissions) -> flatpak version is broken... Try system package -> distrobox -> compiling -> appimage -> not installing a package
Distrobox/containerd is so nice since a lot of the niche tools I use require Debian or Ubuntu dependency versions, but I'd be lying if I said everything "just works"
There should be some kind of automated certification for git repos, where if the described install process does not complete on a default install of the most popular OS, the software gets a big red "does not work" label.
Me on gentoo with my fucked up GCC and python versions. I must have spent so many hours compiling trying to get this shit to the right versions on a Chromebook with very little disk space.
Its cooked, I know its cooked but i dont want to go through the effort of reinstalling.
nix-shell is great too. sort of like a "demo" of something before actually committing to it or if you just want to use something one off without adding it to your config and rebuilding.
As a dev it's fantastic for testing also. can just try something on a bunch of browsers without actually installing the browser. love it.
Oh sweet Jesus! LOL! This is me, though not with Linux, but trying to use Macports to get some damn program running and failing miserably because I couldn't get the permissions set on the dependencies correctly.
As a former Fedora user; if you know/want to know/learning how linux works, or if you are encountering this far too often, switch to EndeavourOS or Arch Linux if you're sure. Don't worry, 99% of things you care will work via Distrobox if you can't find it neither on the official repos nor the AUR (impossible.).
Glad im not the only one. Thats one thing that makes me go man, people will never leave windows for this, this is insanely complex to juat install a program.
Windows;
have to search online for correct website, sift through ads to find the download, install while avoiding malware or extra programs that try to install alongside.
This is true for some but it doesn't work like that in reality. Its much easier to install on windows vs linux, thats just how it is.
Don't even get started on flatpak vs .Deb vs compiling vs snap...explaining that to a windows user makes them about lose their mind.
Windows wins here. Click exe. Install. Done. AND the benefit of being allowed to install to a different hard drive, which linux will not allow without a ton of hoop jumping.
Linux is great but let's not pretend windows doesn't do certain things much better.
Also, not being able to see all your installed programs in one place because they are a blend of .Deb, snap, flatpaks, and compiled. It becomes a mess very quick if youre not careful.
My opinion is to pick distro based on how you want install apps preferably as main deciding factor
Result will be same as on windows, most apps will use the standard way and will all be listed on the same place, and you will have some obscure apps from cocky devs who think that only their preferred install way is correct and that everyone say something else is stupid
if you use any modern distro installing most software is braindead easy. if you have to compile something yourself (which isnt that often) it can get quite funny because one hell of a lot can go wrong.
What I love is when you need a core part of the kernel and the only way to install it is by recompiling the kernel and you can't use bottles or docker for some obscure reason (yes this has happened to me no I wasn't happy.)
I at times have to install completely undocumented software. I love ccmake as it lists all available options. I guess there are other ways, but that makes it so easy.
Then it's just a couple of days figuring out all necessary libraries.
Flatpak/flathub is your friend. I've been using Linux for 20+ years and I'm to a point where if it's not available as a deb, flatpak, system package or at the bare minimum an executable binary/script I just don't bother. Compiling should be done by the software vendor and not required of the user unless they specifically want or need to.
I installed Rocky linux on my new server instance today and I found out that vnstat is not available as a package in the repos. It used to be available on the older versions. 😭 It's been a while since I got back to Linux for my personal use.
It means that I did not installed a certain software due to the dev not providing any binaries or at least making it a little bit easier to compile it myself.
Fyi, it wouldn't necessarily be better with a binary if you are missing dependencies, since it might have dynamically linked libraries (I'd say it probably does but tbh I'm not sure whether dynamic or static linked libraries are more common with Linux programs shared on the internet as my experience there is more with building them for work stuff rather than downloading and installing).
I don't see that at all. This meme is referring to some niche application or to a person with their fingers all up in the nuts and bolts of their OS.
It's common for beginner-friendly desktop distros to have Firefox and LibreOffice installed out of the box. For mainstream use that covers the vast majority.
127 Comments
30p87@feddit.org · 81 pts · 290d
Gimme the repo and I'll get it to compile on Arch, latest testing packages as per 2025-10-20T22:12:00 on repo.30p87.de/archlinux
NegativeInf@lemmy.world · 105 pts · 290d
What colors are your thigh highs?
30p87@feddit.org · 87 pts · 290d
Black-white, preferably pink-white. I overcompensate a lot for boymoding.
Laser@feddit.org · 9 pts · 289d
It's too funny to me that Arch of all distributions attracts the thigh /Unix socks crowd (for lack of better word). Nothing about Arch stands out for me in that regard, there's no social statement or anything, and when I was more active in the community, it wasn't known for that.
I was deep enough into Arch to run my own private repository using aurutils, but no thighs :(
DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 289d
I have them but I use Debian mostly.
Sarcasmo220@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 283d
Sounds like you really missed out
seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 289d
mine are pink white too :D
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 19 pts · 290d
Sadly Im on Fedora.
30p87@feddit.org · 5 pts · 290d
!tja@feddit.org
Bad girl!
guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vip · 1 pts · 288d
Distrobox is a wonderful thing
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 56 pts · 290d
Both of these two cases are why Flatpaks are so attractive.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub · 33 pts · 290d
Flatpaks are better than Snaps, but properly maintained dependency trees and SBOMs are best, by a wide margin.
bigboitricky@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 290d
PopOS fucked me up with flatpaks
Gateway drug
ozymandias117@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 290d
They are extremely effective at preventing PackageKit updates on my steam deck
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 289d
I'm going to be honest to you, I prefer appimages.
iopq@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 289d
I respect your wrong opinion
wheezy@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 289d
I rarely encounter them. But they usually work when I do. But, ugh, they're just kinda gross. Like, is this a .exe? No thank you. Don't give me windows trauma.
Damage@feddit.it · 2 pts · 289d
I'm always like, "well, now where do I put this executable?"
But they do work
wheezy@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 289d
Clearly in $HOME/Downloads/ and forget that you left it there. Then use app(3).AppImage the next time when you redownload it. Keeps you running the most up to date version. It's flawless.
Khanzarate@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 288d
I stick them in /home/bin/ like I would for a compiled app. I found a forum for mint saying thats the expectation for user apps with no specific install location, which is pretty much the issue, anyway.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 283d
I like appimages that are packages on AUR installed and updated using yay, so that I never ever learn that it is in fact a appimage disguised as repo package.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 6 pts · 290d
plus that extra defense-in-depth layer of a sandbox
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 289d
They take up so much fucking space though
greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 288d
Are you running on a really space constrained system? I Used an old Chromebook with only 16Gb of storage for a bit, and to me it's kinda fun to figure out alternative solutions and applications that can make a system like that work. But when I've got a system with 500GB+, I say who cares about the space packages take up.
RustyNova@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 289d
TBH if it's just for that I'd rather use nix packages. But flatpak's sandboxed app are better for sus packages or proprietary-might-spy-everywhere packages.
DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 289d
Flatpaks are okay for stuff that doesn't need deep access but they don't work for many things.
wheezy@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 289d
I've had the opposite experience with flatpaks that I have with snaps. I don't really use them much. But when I see that as an option I use it and it just works. Definitely a fan as a USER of them. I'm sure people have their complaints as users and developers. But I definitely have to say it's been positive so far. Which is a rare consistency in the life of installing packages.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 283d
They work most of the time and I liked them, until I installed my first app that did not work because of the container thing and learning about and using flatseal ate so much of my time, that I never did it again.
I only use yay to install stuff now. And if not on AUR I make (copy and adjust existing) my own PKGBUILD, or find one on a random page of a user who did not publish to AUR yet.
1984@lemmy.today · 25 pts · 289d
You didnt waste those hours, you learned something.
Deebster@infosec.pub · 17 pts · 289d
Nothing that useful, apart from learning again that reading error messages properly can save you much pain.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 289d
That’s a useful lesson to have stick
palordrolap@fedia.io · 24 pts · 290d
Last week was the first time I think I've ever got a random Internet tarball to
configure,makeandmake install. Program even did what it was supposed to too. I was amazed.RmDebArc_5@piefed.zip · 21 pts · 290d
If it’s in the AUR you can use a arch distrobox container
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 290d
I'd be really careful with the AUR since it is the wild west
LordKitsuna@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 289d
I mean technically so are repos to some extent. Many of them have very few maintainers and you are basically just blindly trusting that they won't both miss anything malicious nor be the cause of it.
A little safer but not some ultimate Bastion of safety
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 289d
Not really as repos go thought testing and most distros have reproducible builds.
AUR packages can be submitted by anyone with no testing or validation for the most part.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 283d
PKGBUILD is not sooo hard to read… And, there is Voting and comments, and, you can be sure people would complain if something is fishy
bstix@feddit.dk · 19 pts · 290d
The last picture in the meme always bothered me, because the sequence doesn't make any sense physically. (Popping the rake from mid air and doing the wrong flip and such)
So, I went on to find the sequence that I believe it was drawn from.
nialv7@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 290d
you think the sequence doesn't make physical sense, but skateboarding on a rake is fine?
Ephera@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 289d
It's like flying on a broom. Perfectly logical.
bstix@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 289d
I know it's completely off-topic, but anyway. No, I'm fine with the rake. That's what's makes it funny.
It's the drawing of the skater that is too good, and that doesn't add up with the other details being wrong. Someone who can draw a skater that good wouldn't make the other things that wrong or even random.
The rake is drawn as doing a frontside shove-it, popped from mid-air and failing because of gravity suddenly changing in the middle of the sequence. The skater is "obviously" doing a varial heelflip instead of a frontside shove-it.
So that's the clue to why I thought it was drawn off an actual picture. That the background is also a copy of the original only reaffirms my theory.
In hindsight I can also see that the skater is obviously Andrew Reynolds. The tuck and landing is his signature style.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 289d
I honestly can't remember the last time I've come across a package that I needed that so obscure that it wasn't found somewhere as at the very least an appimage, if not a flatpak. I haven't had to build from source in I don't even know how many years now.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 7 pts · 289d
What? Its something I do quite regularly.
Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf · 6 pts · 289d
Try making music on Linux. You'll be compiling obscure shit and tweaking configs all the time.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 289d
True. But I was coming at if from the perspective of an every day user coming from Windows. email, word processing, internet, etc... Even gaming and photo editing.
The more professional the needed software gets, of course the more obscure it gets.
dodos@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 289d
I think it depends on the distro. Nixos is pretty bad for this if you want to try out a project that is really new. If you wait a month or two a flake usually comes out somewhere.
ranzispa@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 288d
General use package? Sure Specialized package to do something specific in a specific field? Good luck.
I still have flashbacks of installing a c++ library which had to be transpired (or whatever the term is) to c# for another library to work, and having to go manually fix several function and type declarations manually to make it work. And we are talking about the golden standard library in the field...
JamBandFan1996@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 289d
God bless flatpak for these cases
Meowie_Gamer@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 289d
so true
Meowie_Gamer@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 289d
and yeah i can confirm i've been using linux for 7 years...
ragas@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 289d
Gentoo makes it soo easy.
sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 288d
I installed and then ran Gentoo for about 9 months back when it first came out, before Robbins stepped down. I remember the install was pretty involved, but after that it was a pretty sweet system. I keep saying I'm going to go back to it, but just can't be bothered anymore. As good as it was 20 years ago, I'm sure it's even better now.
ragas@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 288d
Yeah, basically handling all the caveats is now automated and you can choose to use binary packages.
nialv7@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 290d
*Laughs in Nix
pageflight@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 290d
*accidentally uninstalls python base package trying to fix dependency conflicts in apt
hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 289d
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 4 pts · 289d
Yeah sure, I gonna setup everything again just because a single piece of software is not available on my pc
varyingExpertise@feddit.org · 2 pts · 289d
distrobox create... done
highball@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 290d
LMAO, back in my Slackware days (3.4, 3.6, 4.0, 7.0), If I had to build from source, which was most things, step1: ./configure step2: install the missing package step3: goto step1 until no missing packages identified step4: make step5: make install
Sometimes my packages were too old, So I would just go to step1 for each package that also needed to be newer. I'm not even a Linux Expert, and I definitely wasn't a Linux Expert then. All the building from source helps me jump into software projects and become productive real quick though.
ohshit604@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 289d
When the dependencies need dependencies and then those dependencies need dependencies, the rabbit hole is endless!
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 289d
Times like this are an argument for why it's OK to occasionally reinvent the wheel.
sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 288d
For those of you old enough to remember, rpm dependency hell
ian@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 288d
As a non IT person I find Linux way better for installing software. The sort of apps non IT people use. The Software store has most of what I need. There rest I install the Windows way. From a website. Apps with a Linux version almost always detect and offer a Linux button to click to install. I wouldn't know what to do if that didn't work. Ditch that application I guess. My distros are pretty standard. Not hacked about. My apps are not too weird. I've been doing it this way for 14+ years. Never needed the CLI either.
angband@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 289d
pfft. ln -s new_library.4.4.7 old_library.4.2.8
all done!
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 3 pts · 289d
If it would be that easy. The problem I had was, that I installed a dependency using my package manager, but to compile my originally wanted software I had to provide a cmake file (of the dependency I installed via my package manager) to the compiler, which I of course did not have.
Miaou@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 289d
This often comes with the *-dev version of the dependency. The normal one contains the binaries, the dev version includes headers and often the FindPackage
angband@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
yeah that's different
SparroHawc@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 289d
I wish Lemmy was able to have emoji reactions to comments just so I could react with a horrified face to this comment.
In lieu of that, I'll just have to put it here: 😱
angband@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
it is no big deal if the package dependency for a library just got swept up in the upgrade cycle. if the needed function call didn't change, no problems. else you just get a linker error.
juipeltje@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 290d
Bruh just use nix, flatpak or appimage 🗿 (we don't talk about snaps)
palordrolap@fedia.io · 21 pts · 290d
"Just use Flatpak."
"But that will use 2GB when a system package will use 34MB."
"Duh, it's not 2GB total. Flatpaks share dependencies."
"I don't have any other Flatpaks on my system."
"..."
"..."
"OK, so it'll be 2GB. Your next one will be smaller, though."
"If I install one and if it shares any dependencies with the first one."
"Pff. You're just a hater."
"Yeah, I hate that something that should be small is using 2GB of space."
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 290d
"The space consumption isn't my preference either, but I'd rather be using the app than fighting dependencies. I wish you luck with your dependency chain then."
palordrolap@fedia.io · 2 pts · 289d
Both you and @iopq@lemmy.world missed the word "is" in the last sentence.
The hypothetical hater clearly installed the package.
iopq@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 289d
The hypothetical hater is wasting time talking about it because you can install nix on most setups, even Mac OS
And it has the most packages, a number of magnitude more than snaps and flatpaks combined
hayvan@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 289d
Sure but this is exactly what Windows and Macos apps do as well. So you're basically complaining a package doesn't do better than industry standard.
Sure it can be better and wanting things to be more efficient is perfectly calid, I'm just asking to set more reasonable expectations.
Of it's in your native repo? Perfect! If not, you have the option to waste some disk space or taking the effort to run configure && make && make install
iopq@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 289d
Or, you could save time by not caring about the 2GB and just installing it. If you really care, get it from nixpkgs
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 1 pts · 289d
Would be nice if all software would be ready as a flatpak or appimage.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 288d
Things have gotten so, so much better over the last 5 or 6 years.
Flatpak, appimage, docker are just brilliant.
I recently discovered nix and am in that honeymoon phase of trying to hit every nail with that hammer.
friendlychemist@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 289d
make: error: libX11.so permission denied or not found make: failed, something something finishing remaining jobs.
dear god what does it mean
I get that your issue was probably more nuanced than that, but what's so confusing about inatalling missing build dependencies? If projects have a build guide sometimes they'll straight up give you an install command for your distribution. If not, it's up to you to find the package names corresponding to what you need to install since they can differ from distro to distro.
savvywolf@pawb.social · 4 pts · 287d
This is why you use Arch/Nix because the package is likely in their repos.
The software probably still won't work, but you can waste more time on it.
UnityDevice@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 289d
More like:
No system package -> installing from user repos -> appimage -> flatpak -> creating your own package -> using a VM with a distro that has the package -> not installing package
If after that you still don't have it,
it wasn't meant to beit's probably just not very good software.lilith267@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 289d
Personally go: Flatpak (I like easily controlling an apps premissions) -> flatpak version is broken... Try system package -> distrobox -> compiling -> appimage -> not installing a package
Distrobox/containerd is so nice since a lot of the niche tools I use require Debian or Ubuntu dependency versions, but I'd be lying if I said everything "just works"
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 290d
There should be some kind of automated certification for git repos, where if the described install process does not complete on a default install of the most popular OS, the software gets a big red "does not work" label.
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 4 pts · 290d
Me on gentoo with my fucked up GCC and python versions. I must have spent so many hours compiling trying to get this shit to the right versions on a Chromebook with very little disk space.
Its cooked, I know its cooked but i dont want to go through the effort of reinstalling.
varnia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 289d
Or you could use nixpkgs. You can search if the package exists online or via cli.
MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 289d
All these different package manager systems.
I think we just need to consolidate and make a standard one
Localhorst86@feddit.org · 13 pts · 289d
I know you want to see this comic again:
https://xkcd.com/927/
rozodru@piefed.social · 2 pts · 289d
nix-shell is great too. sort of like a "demo" of something before actually committing to it or if you just want to use something one off without adding it to your config and rebuilding.
As a dev it's fantastic for testing also. can just try something on a bunch of browsers without actually installing the browser. love it.
ikidd@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 290d
Be me, build a Dockerfile to do all that shit in a nice CI package, still can't run it.
foodandart@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 290d
Oh sweet Jesus! LOL! This is me, though not with Linux, but trying to use Macports to get some damn program running and failing miserably because I couldn't get the permissions set on the dependencies correctly.
Rake right to the face. FML.
somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 290d
Are you using a debian-based distro, perhaps? (Espically if it's a stability-focused one)
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 1 pts · 290d
It was on Fedora.
somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 290d
As a former Fedora user; if you know/want to know/learning how linux works, or if you are encountering this far too often, switch to EndeavourOS or Arch Linux if you're sure. Don't worry, 99% of things you care will work via Distrobox if you can't find it neither on the official repos nor the AUR (impossible.).Edit: was
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 1 pts · 290d
The only reason I am using fedora is because I wanted to try it out. I did use Arch (and also Endeavour) before but wanted to try out fedora.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 288d
Glad im not the only one. Thats one thing that makes me go man, people will never leave windows for this, this is insanely complex to juat install a program.
I find it fun to learn tho
reddifuge@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 288d
Windows; have to search online for correct website, sift through ads to find the download, install while avoiding malware or extra programs that try to install alongside.
Linux; Sudo pacman -S firefox. Done
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 288d
This is true for some but it doesn't work like that in reality. Its much easier to install on windows vs linux, thats just how it is.
Don't even get started on flatpak vs .Deb vs compiling vs snap...explaining that to a windows user makes them about lose their mind.
Windows wins here. Click exe. Install. Done. AND the benefit of being allowed to install to a different hard drive, which linux will not allow without a ton of hoop jumping.
Linux is great but let's not pretend windows doesn't do certain things much better.
Also, not being able to see all your installed programs in one place because they are a blend of .Deb, snap, flatpaks, and compiled. It becomes a mess very quick if youre not careful.
Petter1@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 283d
WARNING MAY SEEM A BIT HARAH,
this is a meme community, so pls take this as satire
As if you would see all your installed apps on one place in windows, lol
Only most, but that is the same on Linux. Only if you go to Linux thinking it should be complex it will go complex
If you just stay at the install way your distro wants you to use, you will get no mess.
Arch -> yay Opensuse -> gui and https://software.opensuse.org/packages Fedora -> flatpak Ubuntu -> snap Debian -> APT Nix -> the nix file thingy
My opinion is to pick distro based on how you want install apps preferably as main deciding factor
Result will be same as on windows, most apps will use the standard way and will all be listed on the same place, and you will have some obscure apps from cocky devs who think that only their preferred install way is correct and that everyone say something else is stupid
reddifuge@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
It does work like that in reality for almost all programs.
For obscure stuff you can use yay or whatever other user repository you want.
yay "program name". Done
I've been doing this for years without issue.
Also you can list all your installed programs. On Arch it's pacman -Q and yay -Qm.
It's so easy a baby could do it. And apparently arch is supposed to be the most difficult.
bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 288d
You're forgetting, not every program in the world exists in your repository.
When they do, great, but doesn't always happen. Make mkv for one, you have to get the linux version off their site custom.
Also it seems you may be one of those people driving people away from linux saying normies are idiots and need to rtfm. Maybe work on that.
reddifuge@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
See, your problems are of your own making. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/makemkv
You are the only one driving yourself away from linux.
You resort to personal insults, then get blocked. Want advice? Stick to vtech.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 0 pts · 288d
if you use any modern distro installing most software is braindead easy. if you have to compile something yourself (which isnt that often) it can get quite funny because one hell of a lot can go wrong.
DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 290d
I was gonna get mad but then I continued reading.
foodandart@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 287d
LOL!
We've all been there..
harmsy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 289d
Cue the Kelsey Grammer growl.
FreddiesLantern@leminal.space · 1 pts · 289d
WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS?!
harmsy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 289d
Explanation
FreddiesLantern@leminal.space · 1 pts · 288d
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AbjVkVo9ITI&pp=ygUXd2hhdCBmcmVzaCBoZWxsIGlzIHRoaXM%3D
stupidcasey@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 290d
What I love is when you need a core part of the kernel and the only way to install it is by recompiling the kernel and you can't use bottles or docker for some obscure reason (yes this has happened to me no I wasn't happy.)
ranzispa@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 288d
I at times have to install completely undocumented software. I love ccmake as it lists all available options. I guess there are other ways, but that makes it so easy.
Then it's just a couple of days figuring out all necessary libraries.
x4740N@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
Different packages having conflicting dependency versions needed for installation
Edit: distrobox may be a viable solution to this
thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
On Nixos
No nixpkg Make flake
DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 283d
Because you realize you don't need it anyway.
gerowen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
Flatpak/flathub is your friend. I've been using Linux for 20+ years and I'm to a point where if it's not available as a deb, flatpak, system package or at the bare minimum an executable binary/script I just don't bother. Compiling should be done by the software vendor and not required of the user unless they specifically want or need to.
nki@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 289d
I installed Rocky linux on my new server instance today and I found out that vnstat is not available as a package in the repos. It used to be available on the older versions. 😭 It's been a while since I got back to Linux for my personal use.
BilSabab@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
damn. that's literally me.
mybuttnolie@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 289d
here's a challenge: diodon plugins in github
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 290d
Don't install software outside of official repos or at least avoid doing it like the plague
Use tools like distrobox and toobx to install apps from other distros
nroth@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 288d
No, then you fix the code to work with your current system libraries and upstream the patch and version bump. This happens less on Arch, BTW ;-)
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 289d
Sorry, what does “not installing something” mean? Is it literal?
Baleine@jlai.lu · 12 pts · 289d
Giving up on installing the package
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 289d
Ah, thank you! Something about the wording tripped me up.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 2 pts · 289d
It means that I did not installed a certain software due to the dev not providing any binaries or at least making it a little bit easier to compile it myself.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 289d
Fyi, it wouldn't necessarily be better with a binary if you are missing dependencies, since it might have dynamically linked libraries (I'd say it probably does but tbh I'm not sure whether dynamic or static linked libraries are more common with Linux programs shared on the internet as my experience there is more with building them for work stuff rather than downloading and installing).
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 288d
All I see when I see this is "Linux isn't quite ready for prime time".
Hopefully it gets less and less true.
Zink@programming.dev · 3 pts · 288d
I don't see that at all. This meme is referring to some niche application or to a person with their fingers all up in the nuts and bolts of their OS.
It's common for beginner-friendly desktop distros to have Firefox and LibreOffice installed out of the box. For mainstream use that covers the vast majority.
cows_are_underrated@feddit.org · 1 pts · 288d
This isnt true. You only have this problem with rather obscure software (which was what I tried to install)