This completely. Speaking as a person who’s more tech skilled than 99% of non-programmers, i can tell you that installing apps is the main tech hurdle for Linux getting mainstream adoption.
There are non-tech hurdles too, but of the actual technology being easy to use then app installation is really the only aspect left that regular people can’t do without a huge dive of tech learning that’s beyond what most people can do.
Installing on mac: click the Mac download button and follow the prompts.
Installing on Windows: click the Windows download button and follow the prompts.
Installing on Linux: there’s no Linux download button, there’s a couple of buttons that say words you’ve never heard of before. They look kinda like buttons to download an app. You click one and try to open it, but it just shows an error, etc etc etc
I’d agree with that sentiment, but at least for me, if we went with all flatpacks, i’d be losing the one ability that I like about appimages, which is as a one-time-use type of “installation”. They’re kind of like those windows EXEs that you could just run in place without needing to install. very useful for stuff like raspberrypi imager where I don’t need to keep it around much
appimages also allow some sort of portable apps you can carry around. Very useful for dealing with no internet scenarios. I also use appimages for things iI use very rarely and don’t want to bother to have them being updated regularly along with the system
It goes a long way to simplicity from both a user and dev to have only one package type to deal with and distribute.
This completely. Speaking as a person who’s more tech skilled than 99% of non-programmers, i can tell you that installing apps is the main tech hurdle for Linux getting mainstream adoption.
There are non-tech hurdles too, but of the actual technology being easy to use then app installation is really the only aspect left that regular people can’t do without a huge dive of tech learning that’s beyond what most people can do.
Installing on mac: click the Mac download button and follow the prompts.
Installing on Windows: click the Windows download button and follow the prompts.
Installing on Linux: there’s no Linux download button, there’s a couple of buttons that say words you’ve never heard of before. They look kinda like buttons to download an app. You click one and try to open it, but it just shows an error, etc etc etc
I’d agree with that sentiment, but at least for me, if we went with all flatpacks, i’d be losing the one ability that I like about appimages, which is as a one-time-use type of “installation”. They’re kind of like those windows EXEs that you could just run in place without needing to install. very useful for stuff like raspberrypi imager where I don’t need to keep it around much
appimages also allow some sort of portable apps you can carry around. Very useful for dealing with no internet scenarios. I also use appimages for things iI use very rarely and don’t want to bother to have them being updated regularly along with the system