Fixed 3 years ago

This contradicts their own wiki. Type 2 AppImages do use libfuse2, which is the problem.

Flatpak also depends on namespaces which paranoid distros disable and cause issues. Which the person you responded to talked about it and you ignored all together lol

Because it makes absolutely no sense what he said. Even in the github thread you linked it is said that namespaces are enabled by default in the kernel nowadays, and any alternative would be more insecure. With the exception of Ubuntu (which uses Snaps) any major distro either comes with Flatpak already installed or the ability to do so with just 3 commands that do not change anything in the kernel. Like, he got it backwards: you have to disable namespaces (and by doing so break any non-legacy kind of virtualization or sandboxing) by default.

The flatpak runtimes are huge and are another distro in practice, just check the contents of the gnome runtime and you will see it is another distro.

I think our definitions vary. What I was thinking about when hearing “another distro” was stuff like Docker, where another kernel, package manager etc. gets loaded. Do you just talk about size?

Exactly that one.

Can I edit systemd services and bootloader settings somewhere?

Then at least give users the ability to edit said text files with a text editor… but the community fights that as well. 🙄 The only distro I ever saw that enabled users to open a file browser and, through that, a text editor as root to edit system files was Mint. KDE had it for a short while before they patched it out again as far as I know (last time I checked Dolphin outright refused to start with root privileges).

It’s not like there weren’t ways to make it easier with little investment. Some elitists just managed to suppress even those efforts for decades.

This is just not true. The average Windows user never has to open the registry, only devs and tinkerers have to. Neither a shell.

For Windows admins do in 30 minutes and you in 30 seconds takes a normal user either 30 minutes ib Linux or, way too often, 30 hours because the random command in the internet didn’t work, did work but had unforeseen consequences (way worse and way too often) or outright broke their system.

Even KDE lacks settings, and even if they ARE there the community is so god damn “terminalistic” that you’ll barely find the correct answer for the GUI, just a bunch of CLI commands that will age like milk and cause future people who look for help to accidentally break something.

NOBODY should be forced to enter a superuser command they can’t understand to achieve a goal they very well do. The community is still fighting against the users’ ability to open a file browser or text editor as superuser WITHOUT going through the command line. It sucks, and normal users constantly get alienated by the lack of these fundamental things on a system that pretends to give them full control.

Full control it does give; after 2 years of painfully learning the command line and its bells and whistles. And this sucks.

Any modern Linux distro viable for the average user uses systemd, and there ain’t many different bootloaders being used by big distros either (almost always either Grub or systemd-boot, rarely Efistub). Likewise it’s clear for years that Wayland is the future (not to mention this problem persists for over 2 decades now).

I don’t see a problem with lack of standardized config files, rather a lack of interest by the rather tech-conservative part of the Linux community (who by now often have a lot to say in development circles).

Now we got it only in config files where we can’t find anything. Also don’t you put a single wrong character in there, it could break everything.

Well-made GUIs can even prevent disaster by exposing settings in a diggestable way and making sure entries are properly edited. Good UI/UX conveys functionality through form and can be navigated intuitively.

To make settings inaccessible on purpose or even alienate people deemed “too stupid” for them is called Tech Paternalism, and it fucking sucks.

Pavuctl still is kind of mandatory to have with most DEs (you should be able to set the proper audio profile in it for 5.1?). Amusingly even on Pipewire systems.

Especially weird to see on Gnome. Audio Settings are rather meh, you still can’t even set how the background is displayed since Gnome 3 either (centered, stretched, fit etc. - unless you know about the “optimizations” app) …but look at our new “Wellbeing” feature! 🦶

Do they support stuff like managing the bootloader or systemd services by now? So far the only thing I ever saw going that deep was OpenSuse’s YaST Settings Suite.

Wait, do you argue that a terminal emulator is just another GUI but with a huge text box? 😅

I don’t even know where to begin… Fedora, Pop!_OS, KDE Neon, elementary OS, Tuxedo OS, Slimbook OS, any Ubuntu flavour that doesn’t default to Snap, Zorin, Nobara, Mint… and any distro that comes with KDE that doesn’t activate Flathub by default (e.g. OpenSuse) got the “Add Flathub” button built-in right in Discovery.

If you want your app to be accessible to as many distros as possible while retaining control over its distribution, Flatpak (and unfortunately Snap) really is the primary way to do so. Once KDE e.V. and the Gnome Foundation finish their efforts to support payments and ownership handling it’s also the golden way for any developer who wishes to make a living with their craft.

Sounds like a fair recommendation to students given the nature of Arch with almost zero bounding boxes to navigate around, I’d absolutely not recommend it to average users who do not look for a deeper learning experience though. In my experience most people want their tool to work in a comfortable way, in this case being the PC. The experience of downloading something from the AUR using “just one command” might be a positive one for many, but for people who aren’t into technology to at least some degree using the CLI in any way is, more often than not, at least uncomfortable.

OP mentioned Mac being confusing to them, so I wouldn’t assume them wanting the student experience with Linux but rather smooth-sailing.

Oh god, please do not do what Hawk just said (No offense Hawk). The “a bit more hands on” means you’ll have to learn to use half of the GNU Utils (command line commands) to feel comfortable. If even Mac feels confusing you’ll NOT feel comfy on Endeavour.

The most easy one is Mint. It might not be the one with the most modern tech under the hood, but it’s pretty much the greatest start as a “normal user just wanting things to work” you can get without immediate help by someone knowledgeable. The community is also extremely friendly and there’s a plethora of tutorials for things on Mint on the web (also many how-to’s for Ubuntu apply on it, and it’s compatible with any downloadable software for Ubuntu (.deb packages, those are basically install files - some companies still prefer to offer their stuff this way).

As context, Endeavour OS is based on Arch Linux. That community expects you to become comfortable with the command line. Endeavour is more of a buffer to it than a remedy, it’s definitely aimed at more advanced users and those who like a more steep learning curve.

If you’re perhaps also in for new hardware, may I also suggest taking a look at companies like Tuxedo Computers, System76 or Slimbook? If you buy from them you get their tested systems on tested hardware including customer support. Extremely valuable for newcomers.

You can find a list of hardware vendors here. (The blogpost is a little bit outdated, you might find it useful nonetheless. Ignore the distro recommendations in it though, I gotta redo the thing eventually)

I do not have anything of this in my system and will not install any app that requires to support all of this.

What are you using, a potato? Any modern distro comes with those. Without GTK4 and Qt6 barely anything even runs, lol.

I mean, you can reject literally everything of this new technology stack, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s things are working now. If you stay with old tech don’t be surprised if things stop working though, the world will move even if you prefer to stand still. However if you want to be taken serious in your criticism please inform yourself on what you’re criticize. Neither Flatpak nor Snap run “another distro inside”. What you’re talking about is stuff like Docker or Distrobox. Those are neither the default on user systems nor should they be, only very few distros aimed at enthusiasts and professionals ship them by default.

There are also multiple ways to ship portable apps, the best known of them would be AppImage. That one simply isn’t recommendable due to a lack of maintenance and security issues (they simply don’t fix the libfuse2 issue).

It’s not like everything was great in ye’ olden days anyway. There literally are FOUR different backends for desktop notifications, Pulseaudio is a friggin’ trainwreck and don’t even get me started on Xorg configuration. Every desktop environment very much did their own thing and once you installed an app using f.e. GTK2 on a KDE3 system the whole thing looked like it recently insulted Mike Tyson since there was no proper config available / it lacked the icon theme / the font broke everything / it didn’t like your hairstyle. Likewise running older software more often than not was a real pain as they expected an environment with obsolete libraries etc.

Like it or not, Flatpak and Snap already are the standard. So is Wayland (and it works like a charm by now), and Pipewire is a god damn godsend after meddling with Pulseaudio all those years. And from a developer’s perspective it’s so nice to have a controllable environment to work with, i.e. Flatpak and Snap. Of those two only Snap generates huge overheads btw, it’s a known problem with Canonicals approach (one of many). Still, technology like that is what Linux needs for the future.

But hey, ultimately Linux gives you the choice. If you want to stay in your niche I hope it suits you well.

I don’t think that’s the main problem, as on the inside (meaning backends) most things are rather standardized (ignoring legacy stuff) and any distro not adhering to those modern standards can be - purely from an economic aspect, NOT a nerd or enthusiast aspect - safely ignored. I do concur that choice paralysis indeed is a problem though.

The modern stack is pretty straight-forward: Flatpak and Snap for distribution, GTK4 (opt. with or without libadwaita) or Qt6 for the UI, Gnome and KDE to take care for proper integration, and stuff like Wayland, Pipewire and the XDG specs to focus on in technical aspects. All the documents necessary to work on fully functioning apps to publish via both Flatpak and Snap are there (not saying everything is perfect, just that it’s properly working). Distro-specific bugs will also be either prevented by the new sandboxing or are to be fixed by the distro in 99% of all cases, not the app author. What’s really missing right now is a way to sell it through those hubs.

Eventually there’ll be sufficient pressure on all sides so common technical necessities will be defined that distros will have to adhere to if they want to receive app support (which is very much possible given the sandboxing around Flatpaks and Snaps). Until then every company keeps freely defining what they support. Right now they usually go two or three big ones, namely Ubuntu, RHEL+Fedora and perhaps SteamOS. Some also go for OpenSuse, probably because they use SLES for their own machines.

Meanwhile commercially developed distros - meaning stuff like Pop!_OS (System76 devices), SlimbookOS (Slimbook devices), Tuxedo OS (Tuxedo Computers) - all use Flatpaks, and as they all integrate it as intended apps work on them as they do on any other distro that uses the modern stack. So customers don’t have to think too much about it.

tl;dr… Don’t give new users too many options (avoids choice paralysis) but 1 or 2 modern ones or whatever a hardware vendor offers, and don’t expect developers to target distros that do not want to fully support either Flatpaks or Snaps. Then we’re already on a good way.

It really depends on your use-case, your criticism is valid though. In general it would be way better for new users to not learn about it as something that gets slapped onto a Windows machine, but on fair grounds for comparison (meaning on a machine from hardware vendors like System76, Tuxedo, Slimbook etc).

For Software it really is a hen-and-egg problem. Big companies won’t support Linux until enough people are there, and enough people won’t come until known software is available. This however changes gradually; The Software Store is receiving payment features in the future (almost any distro uses Flatpaks in the background), so there will be more viable paths to monetize your software product for companies. Meanwhile the amount of users rises more and more for years now thanks to 1. Valves push with SteamOS + Hardware and 2. India and China who got comparably high Linux userbases (I think in India it’s 13% of all desktop PCs).

So yeah, not there yet. But not “far from ready”, really. It just needs some software improvements that are in the works, and for the device vendors to become more known.

I see, so it’s an information problem.

Trans girls are not stronger than other girls. Any increased muscle mass vanishes with hormone therapy as the testosterone supporting it goes away. Likewise the body remodels stuff like cartilages as all of this is influenced by hormones. That’s why Olympia goes so overboard with hormone tests, even forcing cis-women to do invasive measures to reduce their natural testosterone levels.

The only difference caused by puberty that are irreversible are:

• How thick bones are & how they formed
• How you sound
• Where you grow how much hair

And of those three ONLY the first can be of any value in any argument. And definitely not for badminton. Uninformed bullshit arguments cause WAY more problems for cis-women in sports than they could ever solve. There’s nothing fair about that way of arguing.

Oh, right! They can just stop doing what they love! I’m sorry, my empathy-riddled ass didn’t think about this obvious solution.

Forcing a girl to play against boys and use their changing room is pretty fucked up dude. Don’t make yourself look even more like a dick.