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Try getting any moderately complicated software to work on more than one distribution at once. There is a reason why people keep inventing variations of https:/

Try getting any moderately complicated software to work on more than one distribution at once. There is a reason why people keep inventing variations of https://github.com/LLNL/spack https://github.com/LLNL/spack, docker, virtual machines. Distribution packages are usually horribly outdated, broken or both (Arch Linux is one slightly better example). Professional software on Linux is usually tied to some old RedHat Enterprise Linux Distribution (in the case of Scientific Linux, version 6 was based on a RedHat enterprise version from 2010-11-10), which ships with say gcc 4.4.7, so if you want to use any modern C++ features you have to install your own compiler. It ships with an outdated Java version, so you have to install your own JDK.

cat199 9y ago
> Try getting any moderately complicated software to work on more than one distribution at once. Anyone concerned with ease of use wouldn't be doing this in the first place - and at the same time, people can Ubuntu and get a full environment for internet, media, etc. pretty much out of the box, with most other 'incompatibility' issues having to do with poor vendor support and having nothing to do with the system itself being hard to use.. I'm in agreement with the parent here - just because being a F1 car mechanic is difficult doesn't mean changing the oil in a Honda requires an expert and is difficult.. different actual tasks being performed...
em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
AppImages are a way to allow devs to distribute linux software that will run on any linux machine, by packing in dependencies.
hathawsh 9y ago
That may be so, but it is unfortunate that the author tacked on a highly subjective first paragraph to an otherwise informative article. Who regards Linux as "horrendously difficult to use" and why? That's a strong statement that needs explicit justification or citation in any trustworthy publication. We shouldn't have to guess the author's intent. This article makes me not want to find out any more about this news site.

cat199 9y ago

> Try getting any moderately complicated software to work on more than one distribution at once. Anyone concerned with ease of use wouldn't be doing this in the first place - and at the same time, people can Ubuntu and get a full environment for internet, media, etc. pretty much out of the box, with most other 'incompatibility' issues having to do with poor vendor support and having nothing to do with the system itself being hard to use.. I'm in agreement with the parent here - just because being a F1 car mechanic is difficult doesn't mean changing the oil in a Honda requires an expert and is difficult.. different actual tasks being performed...

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago

AppImages are a way to allow devs to distribute linux software that will run on any linux machine, by packing in dependencies.

hathawsh 9y ago

That may be so, but it is unfortunate that the author tacked on a highly subjective first paragraph to an otherwise informative article. Who regards Linux as "horrendously difficult to use" and why? That's a strong statement that needs explicit justification or citation in any trustworthy publication. We shouldn't have to guess the author's intent. This article makes me not want to find out any more about this news site.