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Short version and my own rant (IMO) Desktop application developer should write their software for ONE Common Linux Desktop (abstraction). This would defines a

by cryo 8y ago

Short version and my own rant (IMO) Desktop application developer should write their software for ONE Common Linux Desktop (abstraction). This would defines all rules on how fundamental things must be done and includes everything concerning desktop applications. The developer must not care about Gnome, KDE, Ubuntu, Xfce, .deb, flatpack, Snap or whatever, because this is insane and beyond stupid. 1. Desktop environments, Frameworks like Qt and Gtk and Distributions need to support the ONE set of Linux desktop rules. 2. Developers and their applications can rely on these rules only. Until this happens we are caught in a infinite while loop. while (1) { if (haveOneLinuxDesktopApi()) break; } There's are already kind of that mindset given by Freedesktop.org, this work really needs to be embraced and supported more to bring relevant parties together before they decide to write yet another package format. I think the main problem is not a technical one but that developers of desktop environments, package managing and frameworks for some reason don't reach out to each other and work on ONE common ground for the desktop. Look at Snap and Flatpack, why on earth don't they work together for one solution and instead punish users and application developers again and again. The current situation is a nightmare for users and application developers. There is not a single desktop application which benefits from this mess.

michaelmrose 8y ago
Only a philistine is looking at a robust interesting marketplace of ideas and bemoan the degree of choice which has never been a "nightmare" in any meaningful way to users. It seems likely that the ultimate solution to making it easy to distribute proprietary/complex to package software on linux will end up being Flatpak because its pushed by but not owned by Redhat. Regarding Snap Canonical wants to own the marketplace so that ultimately they can monetize this. Its a single market not a way of distributing software like apt. Since only Ubuntu will ever support it shockingly planet earth will ignore it and like most Ubuntu specific technology it will die on the vine. See upstart, mir, Unity for reference.

by cryo 8y ago

michaelmrose 8y ago

Only a philistine is looking at a robust interesting marketplace of ideas and bemoan the degree of choice which has never been a "nightmare" in any meaningful way to users. It seems likely that the ultimate solution to making it easy to distribute proprietary/complex to package software on linux will end up being Flatpak because its pushed by but not owned by Redhat. Regarding Snap Canonical wants to own the marketplace so that ultimately they can monetize this. Its a single market not a way of distributing software like apt. Since only Ubuntu will ever support it shockingly planet earth will ignore it and like most Ubuntu specific technology it will die on the vine. See upstart, mir, Unity for reference.