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I hate having different install methods for every distro. I don't wanna build from source. Even if you give me a binary, I don't wanna manually make a symbolic

I hate having different install methods for every distro. I don't wanna build from source. Even if you give me a binary, I don't wanna manually make a symbolic link. I hate having multiple conflicting ways to do the same thing. Even within something like Ubuntu I can think of eight ways I've installed software. Steam regularly fails to open, and games compiled for Linux, not running through proton, regularly crash. Hardware features randomly don't work. My laptop won't go to sleep when closed and runs full power while in my backpack. My extra mouse buttons that could be bound in windows without an issue didn't work on Linux. Everything about Linux irritates me these days. I don't want to use other OSes for ideological reasons, but my problems have only increased since moving to Linux on my personal machine.

gorjusborg 3y ago
I'm sorry you are so annoyed, I've been there too. That said, I wonder if some of the pain you are feeling is self-imposed. If you just use a single linux distribution, it is generally consistent in its install methods. Wouldn't you find it weird if someone complained about how the MacOS install process differed from Windows? That's roughly the equivalent of what you are saying. The power management issue is a real problem, and it plagues not just linux, but the PC ecosystem (x86 / intel,amd) in general. MacOS gets around this by tightly controlling their hardware and software to create a great experience. It's harder on the PC side due to the sheer number of configurations of hardware and software that have to cooperate to accomplish good power management. This is the same root cause w/ 'hardware feature' support. A PC is a collection of independently designed hardware and software, smooshed together into some sort of computer. Making that work is difficult due to the sheer number of combinations that are possible. My feeling is that this situation is ripe for solution by a company that treats their software and hardware as a complete system, and to deeply attack these challenges by curating (and eventually designing, if needed) components and software to polish the user's experience.
- zeroCalories 3y ago
  If one distro is supposed to be incompatible with others, we should talk about individual distro, not Linux. But even if I were to grant you that, there's so many ways in which I've had to install things over the years. 1. apt 2. .deb files 3. Ubuntu Software center 4. tar.gz 5. curl > sh 6. Docker 7. Flatpack 8. Snap 9. Compile it myself On Windows it's usually just an installer. On Mac you either you brew, or drag a binary file into your applications directory. Power and hardware is absolutely worse on Linux. I still dual boot on all my machines, so I can make direct comparisons on the same hardware. This isn't just an x86 problem. I agree that we desperately need a solution.

gorjusborg 3y ago

I'm sorry you are so annoyed, I've been there too. That said, I wonder if some of the pain you are feeling is self-imposed. If you just use a single linux distribution, it is generally consistent in its install methods. Wouldn't you find it weird if someone complained about how the MacOS install process differed from Windows? That's roughly the equivalent of what you are saying. The power management issue is a real problem, and it plagues not just linux, but the PC ecosystem (x86 / intel,amd) in general. MacOS gets around this by tightly controlling their hardware and software to create a great experience. It's harder on the PC side due to the sheer number of configurations of hardware and software that have to cooperate to accomplish good power management. This is the same root cause w/ 'hardware feature' support. A PC is a collection of independently designed hardware and software, smooshed together into some sort of computer. Making that work is difficult due to the sheer number of combinations that are possible. My feeling is that this situation is ripe for solution by a company that treats their software and hardware as a complete system, and to deeply attack these challenges by curating (and eventually designing, if needed) components and software to polish the user's experience.

zeroCalories 3y ago
If one distro is supposed to be incompatible with others, we should talk about individual distro, not Linux. But even if I were to grant you that, there's so many ways in which I've had to install things over the years. 1. apt 2. .deb files 3. Ubuntu Software center 4. tar.gz 5. curl > sh 6. Docker 7. Flatpack 8. Snap 9. Compile it myself On Windows it's usually just an installer. On Mac you either you brew, or drag a binary file into your applications directory. Power and hardware is absolutely worse on Linux. I still dual boot on all my machines, so I can make direct comparisons on the same hardware. This isn't just an x86 problem. I agree that we desperately need a solution.