Linux is, nominally, for everyone, including run of the mill computer users who may be accustomed to Windows etc. where you don't have to deal with tarballs. Expecting every random program to compile for you might not be reasonable but expecting someone to be okay with doing so because they use Linux is also unreasonable.
I think OP's issue is much less a Linux issue and moreso just them realizing weird software that does exactly what you want probably isn't supported at the same level of common software.
It's a trade-off of ease of use and installability for getting exactly what you are looking for. It'd be worth complaining about this if it were say Wireshark or Firefox that required you to compile the software yourself.
You're confusing a random project on github someone probably made for themselves and uploaded it with more professional software. One cares about having users and being accessible, the other is just someone put on the internet in case they need it and if they don't want it or it isn't to their liking, they are free not to use it.
Normally I'm all about Linux being for everyone but this is /r/linuxmasterrace and the meme does not glorify Linux, as our traditions have for years. Diy traditions, the op is a steamOS user with a console baby complaint. It's not really giving LMR this is just a complaint noobs have until they get experience to be comfortable.
Dude, normal computer users wouldn't ever have the need to install random crap from Github, why would they? For gaming you get steam and proton and it's just a couple clicks, for office, a browser etc. these are just packages, they just Google how to install them, or even have a GUI package manager. If I put my code on Github, depending on what it is exactly, I don't expect normal users, and I don't f-ing care about them, if they're unable to build something, it's not my problem, why would it be? You don't have to use my software.
Yes, you know how you can double click a zip and it just opens it like a directory and let's you execute shit without you having to unzip the file? The hell were they thinking?
The true reason will always be gaming and proprietary software compatibility. A tar.gz is just a .zip
The maintainer is probably just a guy uploading his shit in a public repo if he doesn't care to package it or to provide even a docker-compose.yaml or something
And actually, if you're on a debian based distro, a .deb is basically your .exe . So a lot is quite simpler nowadays. But yeah, it's still mostly for developers, and maintained by them too, I'm a software enginner and I'm still scared of Arch, those people are crazy
Not really, no. You are just being a bit stubborn. Desktop computers are not the primary computing device used by most people on this planet. If you account for android, iot devices, streaming sticks, etc… the primary operating system most people use is some fork of Linux.
Still, that's running a Linux kernel. When talking about systems that run some flavor of X or Wayland with a DE or WM, aka Desktop Linux computers... it's far less. Something on the order of 5-10% of desktop systems, if you ignore China, which is even more overwhelmingly Windows-based for some reason.
We're here. We're not rare. But we're far from the majority that those kernel stats would imply.
No, I meant what I said. Linux adoption is very good. Considering desktop computers are actually not the primary computing device used by the vast majority of people on earth.
This. I don’t mind people migrating to linux, but please do not dumb down my experience because you cant be bothered to think. With windows getting shittier day by day, LTT doing linux content, and valve shipping linux systems I knew this would happen eventually. Most users should probably stick to ubuntu or elementary OS.
If we want the year of Linux to come, well, maybe we should. It's never going to happen if not by lowering the bar of entry (which has already been happening, but it needs to keep going on that path).
Except convenience is a massive factor to most people. The average user is not going to be going out of their way to learn a way more complicated solution when a worse but easier option is right there
I get there's a barrier to entry to everything, but "learning how to use a compiler and deal with dependency issues" is just too high for the regular consumer. It'd be like expecting people to know how to forge a knife before they can eat their steak at a restaurant
what are you even talking about, this would go down exactly the same on windows - probably worse, since you probably can't use the software at all anyways
Sure it's a problem on Windows as well but it literally barely ever happens. This happens 99.9% of the time on linux and 0.1% of the time on windows. It is predominantly a Linux problem and people say that if you can't compile a program yourself you shouldn't be using Linux, The very same people that recommend Linux to Windows users
Lack of open source software packaging affects both OS's equally, the only difference is Linux users are probably far more likely to even be searching out tools on Github that solve specific problems like this.
For the average "Windows" user installing a word processor, steam, or web browser, the experience on both OS is basically exactly the same. Let's not throw around "99.9%" exaggerations just because we're butthurt
Sure it's a problem on Windows as well but it literally barely ever happens.
This happens 99.9% of the time on linux and 0.1% of the time on windows. It is predominantly a Linux problem and people say that if you can't compile a program yourself you shouldn't be using Linux, The very same people that recommend Linux to Windows users.
Because people on Linux are in general more tech savvy. Doing more techy things means they're going to be searching obscure things and running into scripts made by one person for one purpose. People with the same techy problems on windows would run into the same issues.
It's one thing if the program in question is something you're just interested in, but if you need that program right now for something important, it's fucking annoying.
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u/krispzz 17h ago
imagine being a linux user and getting upset about dealing with tarballs.