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What went wrong with Linux on the Desktop

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kalos:
I am trying to re-get acquainted with latest linux (due to some ankyloses at work)

does that pain to install a single app still exists? compiling, getting dependencies, etc?

I hoped that it would become someday easy to install software in linux, like in winxp, but I saw so many people in the linux community that seemed they were excited with such long install procedures, so I gave up

TaoPhoenix:
I am trying to re-get acquainted with latest linux (due to some ankyloses at work)

does that pain to install a single app still exists? compiling, getting dependencies, etc?

I hoped that it would become someday easy to install software in linux, like in winxp, but I saw so many people in the linux community that seemed they were excited with such long install procedures, so I gave up
-kalos (September 14, 2012, 10:00 AM)
--- End quote ---

I think it still is. I just saw some article the other day about (I think) some software update not being in "this edition of uBuntu." Some people like the whole "reinstall it all" thing, but as a long time Windows user, just gimme the app. : )

jgpaiva:
@kalos: I think it all depends on what you're doing. For most of the stuff, you can just go to the "app store" (or whatever its name is), search for what you want, click install and you're done.

re:compiling: depends on the distro you choose. The most user friendly ones (ubuntu, suse, red hat, fedora?) use pre-compiled packages, so no. If you use something such as gentoo, I believe you can choose but many people compile from source.

re:dependencies: I never fully understood why this is a problem. Maybe because I arrived too late to experience the problem, but for me, the package managers always sorted out the dependencies for what I asked them to install and then installed them with no trouble.

Also, here's superboyac having fun with installing stuff on linux: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=31076.msg294867#msg294867 notice that when he uses the "app store", it's really easy. When he installs from source, well... Not so much :P

40hz:
I am trying to re-get acquainted with latest linux (due to some ankyloses at work)

does that pain to install a single app still exists? compiling, getting dependencies, etc?

I hoped that it would become someday easy to install software in linux, like in winxp, but I saw so many people in the linux community that seemed they were excited with such long install procedures, so I gave up
-kalos (September 14, 2012, 10:00 AM)
--- End quote ---

I think it still is. I just saw some article the other day about (I think) some software update not being in "this edition of uBuntu." Some people like the whole "reinstall it all" thing, but as a long time Windows user, just gimme the app. : )
-TaoPhoenix (September 14, 2012, 10:08 AM)
--- End quote ---

It's not all that common that you'd need to compile and install with today's distros. About the only time you'd need to do that is if you wanted the most bleeding-edge release (i.e. "unstable" or beta) of something. Which is fine as long as you're willing to forego the quality control that takes place before something makes it into a distro's repository. Don't forget that most F/OSS developers work independently so there's no guarantee compiling their app and installing it won't break compatibility or screw up your Linux environment. Backporting and dependency checking are a large part of the reason why distros started doing repositories in the first place. As is security. You can be relatively sure you're gremlin and malware free if you install from an authorised repository.

So until you get more familiar with Linux, I'd suggest you forget about compiling and stick to what is available in the repositories until you gain that experience.

Like Tao said: "Just gimme the app."

I agree with him 100%. So use the repositories as much as possible. That's what they do. That's what they're there for. :) :Thmbsup:

Tuxman:
It's not all that common that you'd need to compile and install with today's distros.
-40hz (September 14, 2012, 10:21 AM)
--- End quote ---
Depends. *buntu is known for broken packages, so self-compiling is a good choice there.
Or just choose a better distribution.

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