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(Rant) Linux really needs to do a better job with package management... (lemmy.zip)
submitted 6 months ago by 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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[–] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

No joke. My distro hop history was:

  • Mint , but it's older so... (TBF I could have avoided a lot of grief and just stayed here),
  • Installed Bazzite , nice but my vidcard is so old it'll be unsupported next release,
  • Tried to install Ubuntu but the installer crashed every time,
  • Debian installed but holy wtf is wrong with the package management. JFC. (it is really bad, skip if you aren't intimately familiar with Linux),
  • Noped out of that to Fedora where it's been amazing except for the complete assholes in the support Discord.
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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    Curious what it is about Debian package management you found wrong, except for not having the newest stuff?
    I run Fedora on my gaming station because I needed a newer kernel than Debian Stable has by default but on my other machines Debian has been working well.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    I don't remember the exact details. I've been happy on Fedora for long enough all I remember from Debian is not being able to find anything and seeing references to repo's that don't apply because I wasn't on the beta stream.

    ;tldr I went through the trouble of wiping and installing another distro because of the bad vibes it gave me.

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