Applications and bundled libraries

Posted Mar 21, 2010 18:31 UTC (Sun) by ikm (subscriber, #493)
In reply to: Applications and bundled libraries by drag
Parent article: Applications and bundled libraries

> packaging happen 'upstream'. "Make install" should not drop binaries onto /usr/local, it should produce a 'deb' or 'rpm' file. Software then should not be distributed through tarballs or central source code repositories, but through built packages.

Funnily enough, that's exactly what happens under Windows. When you release a piece of software for Windows, all you have to provide is an .exe installer. Why? Because that's what end users expect and because it's quite easy to do (you only have one single platform and packaging format). And everyone's happy! Yes, libraries get bundled, they waste space, have bugs, but this doesn't seem like a major issue for most programs.

In contrast, under Linux you just can't provide 1) debs for three flavors of Debian and two flavors of Ubuntu, 2) rpms for each of the existing RH-derivatives, 3) ebuilds for gentoo and gentoo-derived distros, 4) whatever else other formats are out there. This is just crazy! Thus the only reliable and easy form is to provide compilable source. And let all those zillions of distros do the rest.

So what plagues linux, in my opinion, is that hailed "diversity". It's just too diverse to provide an easy way to install a piece of software. Linux needs its own Microsoft to make something a standard at last.

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Applications and bundled libraries

Posted Mar 22, 2010 16:06 UTC (Mon) by Frej (guest, #4165) [Link]

Just for the record, the windows way is also a bit crappy from a user standpoint.
With OSX it's better. For many apps you just drag the 'icon' to wherever you want. This simplicity is for users the same as when we want everything to be a file. It can be expressed as 'everything is just an object' for users. Of course this can't cover all cases, but the simplicity is attractive.
Why isn't a program just a file?

In short this way normal users actually have a chance of
1) Locating the program after 'installing it' (Since they decided the location)
2) Uninstall is just dragging same file (program) to trash.

But i agree, if you want to manage your computer (i think it's fun...) linux is for you. But if you don't, package systems are pretty annoying.