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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Don't use Appimages (a writeup about all the reasons they are a pain for users) (github.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Appimages totally suck, because many developers think they were a real packaging format and support them exclusively.

Their use case is tiny, and in 99% of cases Flatpak is just better.

I could not find a single post or article about all the problems they have, so I wrote this.

This is not about shaming open source contributors. But Appimages are obviously broken, pretty badly maintained, while organizations/companies like Balena, Nextcloud etc. don't seem to get that.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Counterpoint: I don't like having more than one package manager on my system, which means things like Flatpaks and Snaps are out. With AppImages, I just double-click on the executable and off it goes.

[–] FooBarrington 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I get that multiple package managers can be suboptimal (though I don't have a problem with it as long as the integration is good).

But it still seems like a much, much better solution than just not having these applications managed by a package manager, as is the case with AppImages.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

True. I would consider another package manager if it integrated into my system nicely and if I had more than a few applications outside my regular package manager. But I only have like two AppImages on my PC anyway, so I don't mind updating them manually when I need to run them.

[–] FooBarrington 7 points 8 months ago

That is the case for me with Flatpaks. They integrate really well into Fedora Kinoite - you have OS updates and Flatpaks all in a central UI, everything works as expected from any "App Store".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Thats flatpak with flathub. Also described in the post

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

So you prefer to not have any updates or secure verification, because you dont want a second package manager?

Dude you are the second package manager, and if you dont follow the whole gpg verification process I described in another comment, that is less secure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

You should definitely be checking the signatures before double clicking tho

[–] [email protected] -4 points 8 months ago

Most shortsighted answer of the day. Great now you have this outdated executable on your system and you mabye are not even sure this was installed through appimage, because how should you know when your launcher is not telling you anything? golfclap