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Let's compare this to windows If I want to install an app, it might be on the windows store. If it's not then you'll probably have to download it from the inte

by worble 3y ago

Let's compare this to windows If I want to install an app, it might be on the windows store. If it's not then you'll probably have to download it from the internet. If you're lucky it's a link on the developers website, if you're unlucky it's a download from a 3rd party site like softpedia, github or sourceforge, and you have to spend at least a little time making sure you're downloading the official package and not a scam. If you want to offload this to a 3rd party you can use chocolately. Or scoop. Or winget. There are lots of developer tools that only distribute via the software packager that they're built in, ie cargo, npm, or pip. Or I want to download a game, well let's see, that game might be distributed on steam. Or the Epic Games Store. Or Origin. I'm just trying to highlight that this issue is not specific to Linux or Windows (I've never used a mac so I don't know how that compares), app distribution is just a hard and still unsolved problem. Personally, between my distributions official repo, flatpak and steam, I'm pretty happy that 90% of software I need is only a few clicks away with minimal hassle.

icepat 3y ago
Mac is a bit fragmented too. Either you use the App Store, you download a DMG file from the developer and enable third-party unsigned code execution, install using Homebrew, or install X-Code and use Macports. Homebrew has most CLI stuff, but for apps it's just as fragmented. When it comes to uninstalling things, you "drop it in the bin", but that just deletes the executable. You may have to manually clean up stray files and folders yourself. Overall I find Linux is better in terms of software installation than Mac, but I like to call Mac "Corporately supported Unix". While I love Linux and use it often, I always have a Mac around as a backup in the event my Linux machine succumbs to entropy. A Mac may slow down for running UI systems, but anything in the CLI is rock solid, and will remain stable and usable for years. I've never had a Windows install last in a usable state for long enough. I find they succumb to system entropy far faster than any other OS.
askonomm 3y ago
I didn’t even mention the means of obtaining the app, all of which you said applies to all operating systems, I was simply talking about the difficulty of installing one once you already have the app. In Windows it is mostly always an .exe file and that’s it, on Mac it’s a .dmg or .app file and that’s it.

by worble 3y ago

icepat 3y ago

Mac is a bit fragmented too. Either you use the App Store, you download a DMG file from the developer and enable third-party unsigned code execution, install using Homebrew, or install X-Code and use Macports. Homebrew has most CLI stuff, but for apps it's just as fragmented. When it comes to uninstalling things, you "drop it in the bin", but that just deletes the executable. You may have to manually clean up stray files and folders yourself. Overall I find Linux is better in terms of software installation than Mac, but I like to call Mac "Corporately supported Unix". While I love Linux and use it often, I always have a Mac around as a backup in the event my Linux machine succumbs to entropy. A Mac may slow down for running UI systems, but anything in the CLI is rock solid, and will remain stable and usable for years. I've never had a Windows install last in a usable state for long enough. I find they succumb to system entropy far faster than any other OS.

askonomm 3y ago

I didn’t even mention the means of obtaining the app, all of which you said applies to all operating systems, I was simply talking about the difficulty of installing one once you already have the app. In Windows it is mostly always an .exe file and that’s it, on Mac it’s a .dmg or .app file and that’s it.