this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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That's strange, I've always felt that installing stuff is a lot easier on Ubuntu than windows. It's just
apt install <program>andapt remove <program>. Having to manually download and run an exe feels outdated in comparison.Curious what distro you installed that had that issue. The only preview issue I've encountered was on win10 where I had to pay for windows to support H.265 to give me previews of H.265 files.
That's a fair point though. If you aren't willing (and most aren't) to learn enough to be comfortable with the terminal, it can be very easy break something when you are forced to interact with the terminal.
Apt does not have most packages you need anymore. You have to add custom repositories for everything. Which means you have to go to a website and still run a whole bunch of commands. Worst of both worlds. Other distros are not as bad, but between snap, flathub, etc. Linux package management is not in a good state at the moment.
The sad part is that it used to be simple. You could do apt install whatever and it would usually get it.
They also used to have a graphical frontend for apt, which felt like an app store before app stores (and even the iPhone itself) existed.
I suspect it'll get simple again. If canonical doesn't do it, some other distro will overtake it.
Been using linux for 6ish years.
Aint nothin @HughJanus said thats wrong.
assuming what you want is even on apt. if its not, then you gotta add the repository.. and some stuff doesnt even offer that. So you gotta find and download the .deb file. or even compile it from source yourself.
Everything has [Tab] completion these days.
Wikipedia explains it better than I would
And double tab for a list of you really don't want to search.
If it a program you are unfamiliar with, yes you'll probably need to search for the apt name and copy paste. I much prefer that over searching a website, verifying it's not a scam site, then download the exe, and then run the exe once the download is finished. After the first time, just add it to a .sh script and then you can download every program you need automatically if you ever need to set up a new instance again.
I guess it's not for all, but worst case it's hardly any more work than needing to go to a website to download the exe.
Why don't you use the Software App for installing Apps?
There will never be a world where average users prefer typing arcane command line shit over clicking on a button in a GUI.
Install chocolatey in windows and get the best of both worlds…now for 90% of programs I can type “choco install foo” and it finds the exe for me and silently installs it in the background so I don’t even have to click anything