this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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I'm not a fan of the "most stuff just goes in the browser" argument, because then your OS is just Chrome and it doesn't matter what you use underneath it. If anybody genuinely believed that people wouldn't get so militant about the stuff you use to boostrap your PC and launch your real OS.
I also don't agree that things are comparable just because MS keeps a vestigial proprietary app store (and a vestigial but quite competent CLI app manager, while we're at it). Standalone installers are the default for Windows and there are very few times you're forced to deviate from that, including for driver installations. That is a fundamental change, even before you get to the absolute mess that is the variety of repos, package formats and package managers across the Linux ecosystem. Even if you choose to use the Windows Store for some reason it has a single possible setup and more in common with a mobile store than with Linux package management.
Maybe it's having recently switched to Fedora with GNOME and being frustrated by how patchy and unreliable their GUI software app is, but even after installing additional repos most of the stuff I want to use isn't there and I've started defaulting to CLI because it's just more reliable. It is by far the biggest hurdle I'd foresee for a newcomer, and if I had to recommend a distro/DE combo to a Windows user I'd focus on what package manager works best and most straightforwardly out of the box before anything else.
And yes, I did break something badly during that whole process and had to do some serious patching up at one point, so I do appreciate the empathy.
Believe me, I am not advocating that most people only use their Browser, but it is the reality of the situation & actually kind of a good thing in terms of Linux adoption. As you point out, people moved to Chrome w few issues b/c, imo, most normies just need a browser.
As for the rest of it, most people consider the need to download exes one at a time a downside. And again, flatpaks & appimages are the workaround to universal compatibility (anything but adding repos).
That said, you obviously have a lot of experience. I hope you can get to the point where it doesn't feel like Linux is fighting you.
Good luck!
Agreed. The shift from downloading installers to finding stuff in the app store is a pretty big jump, and a necessary one IMO because it prevents the main source of malware (downloading sketchy exes) and ensures that everything stays up-to-date. When it comes from the distro package repository, you can be reasonably sure that it's legit.
And yeah, flatpaks rock.
Linux is a paradigm shift, and I think it's generally for the better.
The distro I use (Pop_os) has a lot of outdated packages in the 'store', & I think that's pretty common for any distro that's not bleeding edge.
The store compensates with flatpaks a lot of the times, but my issue with those is they don't integrate with the system very well. To launch Krita (for a random example), instead of using 'krita' in the command line, I need to use like, '~/.local/var/org.kritafoundation.krita.flatpak' (I am making that up, but it's probably something similar). This becomes a real issue when using scripts or needing software to work system wide.
Appimages are actually my current favorite method for universal install. I rename them, then stuff them in my ~/bin/ directory. My gripe with appimages is there is no auto generated .desktop file.
I like building from source, but sometimes it feels like I install 10 gigs of dependencies to build a 400kb piece of software.
Adding repos was invented by the Devil & is thus appropriately cursed to break systems, so I stay away unless there's really no other options.
I guess what I'm saying is every single method sucks, but still better than Windows lol.
Honestly, an up-to-date store would be the best of all Worlds, which I suppose is Arch's AUR, but, nah. Arch looks like a headache.
Anyways, I'm blabbing. That happens when I start geeking out about Linux.
Does your DE not find it for you? Both GNOME and KDE seem to find my flatpaks, so I just launch them from there.
Ideally you don't launch GUI apps from scripts, and you don't install CLI apps via flatpak. So the handful of times you do want to launch a GUI app from a script, I think it's reasonable for there to be a little bit of annoyance.
You can make an alias if it really bothers you.
That, and nothing autos updates them, not to mention the compete lack of a sandbox, so it can do anything your user account can do.
Yup, the only exceptions are "official" repos. Projects like Debian and Fedora don't ship nonfree software, so the "official" extra repos are essential for things like nvidia drivers.
If you don't like extra repos, you shouldn't like the AUR, since that's essentially the same idea. You're basically running arbitrary code on your machine.
The AUR can be great, just be careful.
I'm using Cosmic, which apes Gnome but is not Gnome. I'm being a total purist though & keeping as much KDE & Gnome out of the DE as possible.
That said, Cosmic has no problem updating the menu when Flatpaks are installed. I also don't tend to run software from a script just for funsies, it's usually to do with an automated process. Another issue is sometimes, a script will call on a hook for software, like a browser for example, & flatpaks can cause problems with the scripts locating or sharing data with the scripts due to the nature of the sandboxing.
I still have plenty of flatpaks installed because they are pretty good, even with (what I consider) flaws. Imo flatpaks are kind of like Docker in that they're great & everything, but also kind of a pain in the ass.
As far as appimages, I guess it doesn't bother me to update manually once in awhile and, as I just explained, I actually usually want software to have access to everything. I installed Ghostty via appimage, for example, & I use it all the time, but it's not critical that it gets updates, so I just check manually on occasion.
Anyways, I 100% agree with you on the rest. I've never considered the AUR as a giant repo but yeah, that's a good way to think of it.