I'm a noob too but apt and flatpak are enough for me on Pop!_OS. I've added a couple repos here and there. I don't really see flatpaks as annoying, I prefer them as they generally make dependencies easier for me. They few pieces of niche software I have weren't that difficult to build/install.
For very niche software you can install from source (which is what the AUR is doing for you a lot), and Flatpak/Flathub tends to fill in the gap on a lot of distros.
80% of the time, compiling something from source is just a matter of downloading the code, opening a terminal and changing to the directory containing the source and running these commands:
./configure
make
make install
It's the same 3 commands, 80% of the time.
Installing the prerequisites can be tricky, if the docs are lacking.
For Fedora I feel like usually the default package manager really is enough, and when its not, theres the COPR which allows you to install stuff kinda like the aur. There's also flatpaks.
Let's see... "anyone who wants to upload their files can". "This gives a windows-like install experience". "Any program is free to be uploaded and installed by anyone". Read those again and realize what a massive security hole that is.
This is the same thing Tim Cook says to defend the app store. I trust that I can sniff out what is malware and what isnt. And if I cant, its hurting nobody except for me. I see it as overwhelming good to have so much software available at my fingertips.
Please read on what a botnet is. Malware does not hurt only you. By your own words, you're just a noob, you have to understand that you have a lot to learn.
Fedora has a pretty good amount of software in the repositories, so a lot of the time that's enough. When it's not, flatpak with flathub have most gui software covered, and outside of that, if we're talking about terminal or command line stuff, most of those have their own custom way to install them, or they just have self contained binaries that you can put in ~/.local/bin/.
I haven't run into many issues with flatpak like it sounds like you have, so that really covers a lot of it for me honestly.
Maybe thats where my noob comes in but flatpak has been more of a workaround than an actual install for me. Things always not running correctly or being unable to do certain things due to containerization. If I was running a server though, and if flatpak is efficient, it seems like a great idea!
Do you know about Flatseal? It’s an application that lets you manage flatpak permissions. Until the portals system is fully working, weakening the sandboxing using Flatseal is what a lot of people do to make the apps work correctly.
Also, if you use KDE, the settings app has flatseal-like functionality built in.
Never heard of it, but it sounds awesome! I’ll definetly be looking more into it. I’m on XFCE, so I’ll have to install it manually. But overall its great that someone has gone out and made a permissions manager for flatpak.
I've considered switching to debian (especially recently with the new release), its size really helps in terms of package management. Usually when high-level software companies want to do the bare minimum release to linux they just package it in a .deb and save it on their website.
I'm at an age where I really don't want to deal with configuring Linux. My requirements are that it needs to work, it needs to be quick and easy to configure, and I need to be able to develop on it without any hassle.
Ubuntu is great for this. I can spend my days programming, instead of fighting my system
I used to use Ubuntu for this reason, but the installs eventually go bad.. and it's a huge pain to keep them going. I think they just expect you to keep reinstalling? Updating seems to not work out the best.
Eventually, I just went to debian because it works for at least 5 years. With Ubuntu, I found it was good for a year or two then I wasted more time trying to update or fix something than I ever did with configuration.
I agree. I have been using an old Debian stable (Buster) for about 7 years. It doesn't require much configuration, not at all if using the packages from the default package manager. There are also backports packages for the popular ones.
Skill level doesn't matter much, what matters if you enjoy using it. I've used it for about 13 years and have had a blast. Even if Lemmy doesn't take off like reddit, I look forward to talking with you all about this fantastic FLOSS ecosystem.
I started literally 3 days ago to make my kid an emulator machine and i think it's refreshing. Will definitely be looking into using it for my other machines.
I've never used it, but the premise seems good. Fedora/RHEL/Rocky are solid platforms, but they definitely leave a lot to be desired from a desktop standpoint.
They're geared towards server applications so you don't get the latest packages. Instead you get lots of backported security patches. They're very stable, but it comes at the cost of not having lots of niche packages in the main repos. At least, that's been my experience.
It’s basically like… this nice compromise between Arch and Gentoo. You got precompiled packages, but if you’d like, you can compile everything from source. xbps-src is like Portage on Gentoo, except some of the more popular packages get precompiled and put on the main repo (kernels, libraries, office suits, browsers, etc.).
I like it cuz if you’d like, you can get nitty gritty about it, but if you’d just like things to work out if the box, just use the repos and off you go. Plus, it comes with xfce by default (if you choose the DE ISO), which is what I use, so saves me the time to set up xfce. And it has a non-free repo, so that’s also a big plus (take a proprietery package, repackage it for Void if the license allows it, if not, just leave the template in xbps-src and let users make their own package).
Also, it’s incledibly stable for a rolling release distro. I also use it on some severs, I’ve never had a single one break something after an update. It’s not as bleeding edge as Arch, so they’d rather opt for not something as new, but more stable, which I also like.
I may have to check this out. Arch user here, but missing portage. That was my favorite package manager of any distro, but boy did it get old when you forgot some use flag and ended up having to recompile your entire life.
I’m running Void Linux on one 11-year-old laptop (with XFCE and i3). My only complaint is that installing packages can be a lot more of a nuisance. The xbps repo doesn’t have anywhere close to the number of packages in pacman+AUR, and I have run into trouble installing stuff much more often on Void than on Arch. There’s a solution for everything, but in the end it’s extra work. All that being said, Void is awesome and fun.
I have the same feelings as you do on the package managment. It’s not always so great and it was one of the reasons why I have’t i stalled void on my laptop (instead opting for artix). One more thing I’d like to add is the installer, for some reason I was always confused a bit by partitioning in installers. But manual partitioning like on arch is not really a great solution as well, because for people who have never done it before it is even more confusing.
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