S3kshun8

I know I'm probably going to get some shit for this, but, this actually is one of the reasons I like using Rust. I know, I know, but, the fact that cargo can be used as a package manager universally across distros (and operating systems!) is a pretty huge boon to me as a developer.

Zero (Linux) package manager involvement and onerous rules.

I guess I did a really bad job getting my point across because ultimately the OpenMW situation was just used as a convenient example of the kind of tribalism towards technology I see embodied across many subsections of the Linux community. It's not just a single individual or project.

I'd love to do a more technical and less frustrated breakdown of this later - I stand by everything said here, but, I feel like I really failed to get my ideas across.

Generally speaking, between flatpaks and appimages, flatpaks are actually a lot easier to make and get out to people. The thing you're talking about here, not being able to easily run or get them, is kinda the core issue with appimages.

I've never actually worked with snaps before, but they're Canonical's format, somewhat? specific to Ubuntu. I can't say too much about them.

There are a bunch of different ways it can be addressed. The biggest overarching problem is package managers, essentially. I think immutable distros will do us all a lot of good, but, really all that is needed is just for particular distributions to gain critical mass as has been happening with Arch over the last few years.

As far as actually shipping anything goes, it really is terrible for the user the most. Those are the people that end up getting hurt by not being able to navigate package management systems effectively, or break them, etc, and sometimes you might end up helping someone on a system with a package manager you've never used. let alone actually shipping something through one or any of them. But just because someone inside the Ubuntu or Fedora community might be willing to help by way of packaging one's application doesn't necessarily mean those roles existing is helpful in this era to begin with.

This happens at all kinds of scales throughout the community. The worst part ultimately is how many new users/devs get ran off because of this sort of thing in every nook and cranny of it.

tl;dr - package manager bad, immutable distro good

Well, it sounds pretty funny. What can be said factually is that the Steam Deck is based on an immutable distro like Bazzite, which is a lot more important than flatpaks themselves. Flats are just a popular way to get apps on such a setup. I see a lot of resistance to them in general, not just in specific individuals or communities on the web, and they're actually pretty solid and do see lots of investment from other companies. SteamOS itself being an immutable distro, Gabe is indeed at least indirectly shitting his yacht money into them.

I used that as an example, but, it really isn't the main point of the article. Basically, immutable distros are actually pretty good and worth using. I think that's largely where we'll end up due to all the various terrible user experiences I've seen throughout my years in the Linux community.