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Drawing the line: almost any categorisation has debatable cases, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. It's quite obvious that an app like Firefox is diff

Drawing the line: almost any categorisation has debatable cases, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. It's quite obvious that an app like Firefox is different from something like Qt or Python. Dependencies: the distribution provides, e.g. Qt 4.8 and Python 2.7. Applications that support the distribution work on those versions because their developers knew that's what they needed to support. That's how it already works for open source apps. Usefulness: if the user wants a shiny toy, they'll go and get one. If that turns out to carry malware, it's just as much of a problem as if they were trying to install something 'useful'. It's not about what you consider useful, it's about what users want to use. Why should you care: when a new version of, say, Libreoffice comes out, why should I have to wait 2-8 months before I can benefit from it, on the 6 month distro release cycle? Windows users can upgrade the same day. Some things, like Firefox, now get fast-tracked updates, but there isn't the manpower for any distro to do that for all apps.

Nursie 14y ago
I guess you and I use/view software differently. To me the new version hasn't really been released for my 'OS' until the distro packages it. When using a stability-oriented distro like debian, that's important. Usefulness: if the user wants a shiny toy, they'll go and get one. If there's something that's not in the standard repos then I have to consider taking the same steps as a Windows user - geting something with less that 100% trust and less than guaranteed stability. Usually at this point I'll look for an alternative that's better supported. I'm not trying to claim I am in any way representative, but my behaviour differs markedly from what your 'user' does. BTW - There is absolutely nothing to stop someone working on top of a 'normal' distro stuff to deliver cutting-edge apps. In fact it's pretty much been Ubuntu's selling point. It's also what Steam is doing. Just please don't ask distros to stop doing what they do best - make the seamless and painless experience that's made various forms of Linux my platform of choice for many years now.

Nursie 14y ago

I guess you and I use/view software differently. To me the new version hasn't really been released for my 'OS' until the distro packages it. When using a stability-oriented distro like debian, that's important. Usefulness: if the user wants a shiny toy, they'll go and get one. If there's something that's not in the standard repos then I have to consider taking the same steps as a Windows user - geting something with less that 100% trust and less than guaranteed stability. Usually at this point I'll look for an alternative that's better supported. I'm not trying to claim I am in any way representative, but my behaviour differs markedly from what your 'user' does. BTW - There is absolutely nothing to stop someone working on top of a 'normal' distro stuff to deliver cutting-edge apps. In fact it's pretty much been Ubuntu's selling point. It's also what Steam is doing. Just please don't ask distros to stop doing what they do best - make the seamless and painless experience that's made various forms of Linux my platform of choice for many years now.