Making apps for Linux sucks big time. No one wants to deploy 10+ variants in a multitude of formats. The current userland in Linux is a huge clusterfuck.
If people want to see Linux on the desktop to take off for real, then here’s what needs to happen:
Userland API should be standardized. One API for all distros, no exceptions.
Userland API should be binary backwards compatible. If I build my app and it works today on Ubuntu 22, it should work tomorrow without any changes on Ubuntu 24 and RedHat 10.
GUI API should be part of userland. I don’t give a shit about GTK and Qt, I need one API which works everywhere at all times.
Deployment format should be standardized. No more deb and rpm bullshit. Just one format for all distros.
Init system should be standardized as well. If I want to auto start my app, I shouldn’t care if it’s init.d or whatever else bullshit. Just one fucking system!
The current app repo system must die. It should work like App Store - I make a dev account, I publish my apps, they pass some automated checks and then every Linux user can install my apps and they should work on every bloody distro.
There should be a distro test spec - every distro should be tested against it. If some distro doesn’t pass the test its devs get back to the drawing board and fix it.
This would easily kill Linux entirely. Doing most of this wouldn’t even be legal as you’d have to covert Linux to closed-source. Not even Apple does all of this on the iphone.
I understand what you mean, however,there are at least 3 different kinds of distros that are complementary: LTS based distros, stable distros and rolling distros with cutting edge version releases. These have undeniably distinct use cases.
Init system should be standardized as well. If I want to auto start my app, I shouldn’t care if it’s init.d or whatever else bullshit. Just one fucking system!
Why some obscure app should touch system-wide init? GTFO of my init!
And generally your comment is filled with super wierd stuff.
There are hundreds of thousands of “apps” for Linux so it doesn’t seem that distro diversity is hurting Linux. Besides, if it bothers you, just make an AppImage and don’t worry about variants.
That’s not it, though, I bet. I think you just don’t like the fact that there isn’t an easy ad-based monetization pipeline on Linux, like there is on Android and Apple. That’s not what Linux is for.
I don’t care if Linux “takes off” on the desktop. Why would I want that? We already have Windows. I like the Linux community as it is, thanks.
Also, complaining that you can’t make your app autostart on my computer… really? Fuck that.
Making apps for Linux sucks big time. No one wants to deploy 10+ variants in a multitude of formats. The current userland in Linux is a huge clusterfuck.
If people want to see Linux on the desktop to take off for real, then here’s what needs to happen:
So… Windows?
LinuxNT
This would easily kill Linux entirely. Doing most of this wouldn’t even be legal as you’d have to covert Linux to closed-source. Not even Apple does all of this on the iphone.
Linux kernel is stable and standardized. How is it close sourced and dead? You guys are dumb af.
I understand what you mean, however,there are at least 3 different kinds of distros that are complementary: LTS based distros, stable distros and rolling distros with cutting edge version releases. These have undeniably distinct use cases.
Why some obscure app should touch system-wide init? GTFO of my init!
And generally your comment is filled with super wierd stuff.
It’s normal stuff. Linus himself talked about it for years. And nothing has improved.
rotfl
There are hundreds of thousands of “apps” for Linux so it doesn’t seem that distro diversity is hurting Linux. Besides, if it bothers you, just make an AppImage and don’t worry about variants.
That’s not it, though, I bet. I think you just don’t like the fact that there isn’t an easy ad-based monetization pipeline on Linux, like there is on Android and Apple. That’s not what Linux is for.
I don’t care if Linux “takes off” on the desktop. Why would I want that? We already have Windows. I like the Linux community as it is, thanks.
Also, complaining that you can’t make your app autostart on my computer… really? Fuck that.
If you don’t care, then keep quiet.
I don’t even like Linux for end users and even I know this is a bad idea. It’s anathema to what Linux is.
Wut?