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There are several linux distros, I'm a single OSS developer. I once tried making my program available for Debian (deb), Ubuntu (ppa) and Fedora (rpm). I ended u

by akerro 8y ago

There are several linux distros, I'm a single OSS developer. I once tried making my program available for Debian (deb), Ubuntu (ppa) and Fedora (rpm). I ended up supporting only AUR. There are too many differences in packaging managers, different requirements, too many websites I have to register on, too many config files for each distro. Support from people who work as packagers is non-existent, questions on SO out of date, error and warning from packaging software misleading or completely useless. It's a huge mess, and if you think existing system is better than Flatpak/Snap/AppImage, I'm sure you haven't tried porting your software to top 6 distributions. Also, enjoy dependency hell, Debian has old Qt and PA, Mint has PA compiled without noise-cancelling flags, Ubuntu had SQLite3 with not working encryption, Fedora had backported Qt5 patch (old Qt with latest patch) witch fixed one issue, but broke CSS on Cancel/OK button group. I welcome AppImage and Flatpak.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
> I'm sure you haven't tried porting your software to top 6 distributions In his world developers don't do that, they throw a pile of source files into the wind and let package maintainers put it together for a distribution.
- oblio 8y ago
  And then your package reaches distributions 1-5-7 years later. I guess that's an acceptable software distribution practice. If you're still living in the 80's :D
  - digi_owl 8y ago
    Want things to make it into STABLE distros quicker, do not break APIs because the latest bling bling framework/language/whatever got released!
  - ris 8y ago
    There are many people who have got tired of wanting the absolute latest exciting version of their text editor, mail client, IRC client, spreadsheet and want things to just work and leave them alone. The larger part of me dreads debian upgrades these days.
    - FooBarWidget 8y ago
      What about the many people who do want the latest version of their text editor etc? Those people now have few options good options. Is it fair to force them to conform to your conservative standards?
- akerro 8y ago
  Yea, mainters also modify X-sofware, backport it, compile with different than tested compilation flags, remove patches they don't like, don't upgrade software for years or decades. Remember the time xscreensaver author asked Debian to remove it from their distro, added warning in GUI saying _("Warning:\n\n" "This version of xscreensaver is VERY OLD!\n" "Please upgrade!\n" "\n" "http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/\n" http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/\n" "\n" "(If this is the latest version that your distro ships, then\n" "your distro is doing you a disservice. Build from source.)\n" ), YES, THAT WHAT USERS WOULD SEE, if only Debian maintainer haven't removed this patch. jwz.org/blog/2016/04/i-would-like-debian-to-stop-shipping-xscreensaver/ https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=819703#84 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=819703#84
  - deathanatos 8y ago
    Note that jwz.org redirects any requests from HN to a rather NSFW Imgur picture. (Also filled w/ ad hominem attacks towards HN users.) If you want to view the jwz.org link, copy the URL, and open it in Incognito.
    - akerro 8y ago
      Fixed by removing https:// https://
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
  - digi_owl 8y ago
    And most of that come out of upstream not having a farts care about API stability! Thus distros have to work around that by freezing lib versions and any software depending on said lib version for the support period of the distro release (5-10 years). What is "funny" is that Debian here is doing no different from what RH had been doing with RHEL for ages, yet Debian gets all the flak... Never mind that xscreensaver has a very prominent splash screen with JWZ's email on it on every launch. Maybe if he didn't want every idiot on the net emailing him, he should not show it in their face all the time. He may be brilliant in some ways, but sometimes he can be an raging asshole. Hell, sometimes i wonder why he keeps supporting Linux as he seems to have no love for anything but Apple these days.
- jcelerier 8y ago
  I once had a maintainer remove random lines of code from my modern C++ codebase until it compiled on his old GCC / Qt combination. He then went on making bug reports of random segfaults on almost every user interaction.
  - oconnor663 8y ago
    In their defense, if they remove enough lines, eventually the segfaults will go away.

by akerro 8y ago

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

> I'm sure you haven't tried porting your software to top 6 distributions In his world developers don't do that, they throw a pile of source files into the wind and let package maintainers put it together for a distribution.

oblio 8y ago
And then your package reaches distributions 1-5-7 years later. I guess that's an acceptable software distribution practice. If you're still living in the 80's :D
- digi_owl 8y ago
  Want things to make it into STABLE distros quicker, do not break APIs because the latest bling bling framework/language/whatever got released!
- ris 8y ago
  There are many people who have got tired of wanting the absolute latest exciting version of their text editor, mail client, IRC client, spreadsheet and want things to just work and leave them alone. The larger part of me dreads debian upgrades these days.
  - FooBarWidget 8y ago
    What about the many people who do want the latest version of their text editor etc? Those people now have few options good options. Is it fair to force them to conform to your conservative standards?
akerro 8y ago
Yea, mainters also modify X-sofware, backport it, compile with different than tested compilation flags, remove patches they don't like, don't upgrade software for years or decades. Remember the time xscreensaver author asked Debian to remove it from their distro, added warning in GUI saying _("Warning:\n\n" "This version of xscreensaver is VERY OLD!\n" "Please upgrade!\n" "\n" "http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/\n" http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/\n" "\n" "(If this is the latest version that your distro ships, then\n" "your distro is doing you a disservice. Build from source.)\n" ), YES, THAT WHAT USERS WOULD SEE, if only Debian maintainer haven't removed this patch. jwz.org/blog/2016/04/i-would-like-debian-to-stop-shipping-xscreensaver/ https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=819703#84 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=819703#84
- deathanatos 8y ago
  Note that jwz.org redirects any requests from HN to a rather NSFW Imgur picture. (Also filled w/ ad hominem attacks towards HN users.) If you want to view the jwz.org link, copy the URL, and open it in Incognito.
  - akerro 8y ago
    Fixed by removing https:// https://
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- digi_owl 8y ago
  And most of that come out of upstream not having a farts care about API stability! Thus distros have to work around that by freezing lib versions and any software depending on said lib version for the support period of the distro release (5-10 years). What is "funny" is that Debian here is doing no different from what RH had been doing with RHEL for ages, yet Debian gets all the flak... Never mind that xscreensaver has a very prominent splash screen with JWZ's email on it on every launch. Maybe if he didn't want every idiot on the net emailing him, he should not show it in their face all the time. He may be brilliant in some ways, but sometimes he can be an raging asshole. Hell, sometimes i wonder why he keeps supporting Linux as he seems to have no love for anything but Apple these days.
jcelerier 8y ago
I once had a maintainer remove random lines of code from my modern C++ codebase until it compiled on his old GCC / Qt combination. He then went on making bug reports of random segfaults on almost every user interaction.
- oconnor663 8y ago
  In their defense, if they remove enough lines, eventually the segfaults will go away.