The Linux world has been trying to invent a cross-platform packaging format for years, but leading contenders – the older, vendor-neutral older, AppImage format as well as Ubuntu’s Snap and Fedora’s Flatpak – all have serious issues.
What is this writer even talking about? Apt, Pacman exist and have been the Big Feature of Linux distros since inception. What is easier than typing, “apt update/apt install XYZ?” It makes installing new toys so much darn easier than anything on Windows.
As a basic non-developer user of Linux for my desktop, the ease of Linux and Debian once installed and operational is at a Just Works level as is. It requires learning new computing habits, sure. You have to un-learn presumptions from Windows, but once you have that understanding you open up a world of ease and workflow simplicity that you couldn’t drag me away from if you paid me!!!
The community support is top notch. The developers are responsive more often than not to requests and advice than any Microsoft customer support line, and they know what they’re talking about because they made the damn tool to begin with!
I would have never divested my world of internet services if I hadn’t learned of Docker container apps that make divesting as easy as a yaml script and a few hours of curiosity.
Updates are handled by apt upgrade. It’s freaking two words.
I think this author needs to write on other subjects.
Sure, for things that are packaged in your distro’s repositories the best option is to use your package manager. As it is, that requires a ton of effort on their part and will never include every piece of software available for Linux. Cross-distribution solutions are necessary so an application developer can simply release a version for Linux and leave it at that, rather than releasing a .deb and maybe a .rpm and leaving everyone else to either build it themselves or hope someone decides to package and maintain it for their distro.
I don’t mean this as an insult, but I think you missed what they’re talking about entirely. This isn’t saying apt or whatever is too hard for the user to use. It’s comparing the different solutions that are out there to make up for the gaps in that model.
