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  • 15 Comments
Joined 3 months ago
Cake day: June 6th, 2025
  • arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zonetoLinux@lemmy.ml•What problems does Linux have to overcome to get more usersEnglish
    3·
    13 days ago

    Personally, basically no one I know uses the app stores on windows or macos much. These app stores are actually functional in that they have proprietary apps and allow purchases. There is basically 0 chance Linux will become popular if you can only install things through an app store (especially those that make it hard/impossible to buy proprietary apps). Additionally, desktop Linux is not particularly secure anyway. Flatpaks are helpful here, but most require manual tuning of their sandbox to actually be secure, which the average user is 100% not gonna do. On top of this, what do you do when an app is not available in your curated app store? Do you download it directly online? Do you trust some random repository you find online that can be filled with who knows what at a later point? Or do you just say “oh well sucks to be you I guess?” If you download it directly online, then it may not even have dependency information. If it doesn’t embed dependency information, then it’s basically useless to your average person. It also has the problem you mentioned of someone downloading the wrong executable. Likewise, the other two options are IMO just not viable.

    IMO, the only way for a package manager/app store solution to work is:

    1. The platform is built around it from day 1
    2. The platform has a large number of developers submitting their packages to it (as opposed to the distro maintainers having to track down changes themselves)
    3. The app store has payment methods
    4. The app store has proprietary apps
    5. The app store has a large number of reviewers that can check the apps submitted in a timely manner
    6. Probably bundling dependencies with the apps.
    7. The app store has a functional review system with users actually leaving reviews.
    8. Going along with the reviews, going through the app store (as opposed to using the package manager directly) may need to be a requirement to encourage reviews, at least at first.

    Basically, it needs to be an iOS/Android situation, with a similarly large company backing it. I should also note that it’s possible to install malware on iOS/Android, just harder, and the scope is usually less severe because of sandboxing.

    EDIT: Also, it’s entirely possible to do one-click installs in a “safe” way, by requiring that developers get their apps signed by whoever makes the distro (like macos gatekeeper or whatever it’s called).

    EDIT 2: I should also note that just being “different” is enough for people not to use something. If something basic, like the way to install apps, is different enough, people may just decide they don’t like it. My relatives would likely do this, for instance.

  • arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zonetoLinux@lemmy.ml•What problems does Linux have to overcome to get more usersEnglish
    4·
    13 days ago
    • Needs to come pre-installed on computers.
    • Pre-installed distro needs to support one-click installation (like .app or .exe).
    • Pre-installed distro needs to have be easily searchable (for problems, and e.g. searching “chrome DISTRO_NAME” needs to pop up with a link to the one-click installer).
    • Pre-installed distro needs to run perfectly out-of-the-box, no fiddling with drivers, no needing to issue a random shell command for some random issue.
    • UI needs to be intuitive. Probably something like KDE. Could maybe do Elementary or GNOME with dash-to-dock or something.
    • Updates should be easy. Ideally apps can self-update or the apps will indicate if they need an update and have a button opening up an updater that can update all your apps/the OS.
    • Updates for minor programs need to be hidden/rolled into OS updates. Most people aren’t gonna want to see that glibc updated.
    • Better management of stuff like VPNs (probably not important for the average user, but e.g. NetworkManager’s GUI support is kinda shit).
    • If using GNOME, need to have app indicator stuff pre-installed (if I’m being honest, the fact it’s not built-in is absurd).
    • Needs to come with good basic apps. Some of the default apps included with DEs are kinda shit. There is still no truly good mail client IMO (at least that doesn’t look dated AF).

    Probably more.

    EDIT: Something like Lutris should probably be integrated into the OS. Installing non-Steam games is a minor hassle at the moment IMO.

  • arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zonetoLinux@programming.dev•Why I'm Leaving NixOS After a Year? (Uğur Erdem Seyfi)English
    21·
    17 days ago

    I’m gonna be honest, I use NixOS, but the docs fucking suck, and a number of things are just broken in nixpkgs. For instance, I recently discovered the structuredExtraConfig option for patching the kernel straight up does not work. This means you cannot unset any kernel options, which means some kernel patches won’t work unless you manually supply the entire kernel config.

    EDIT: what’s even more annoying about it not working is that it fails to apply silently. In other words, your kernel tries to compile and then an hour later it fails because your config changes weren’t applied.