Ubuntu installers?

[M. Fioretti]

On Sat, Jan 07, 2023 17:41:39 PM +1100, Owen Thomas wrote:

>     > However, it would be excellent if Ubuntu took hold of one way of
>     > installing software and eviscerated all the others.
> 
>     Owen,
> 
>     I already said I do share your pain, but unless I missed something in
>     the previous posts, what you ask above is half impossible, half
>     irrelevant.
> 
> 
> Impossible is a word I might be able to appreciate. Irrelevant?

yes, irrelevant, as in "it would not change anything relevant anyway"

**If** what you have in mind is a single front-end, that is ONE window
or CLI tool from which end users install everything all in the same
way, without even knowing if the software that will be downloaded is
snap, .deb or anything else:

that would feel good, I agree. But sooner or later it would very
likely cause conflicts and make them less visible/harder to solve,
because you would be installing "blindly" stuff that was
compiled/configured in many, possible conflicting ways.

But never mind, because all the rest of your email:

> Why not consider bundling  a single package manager from a primary
> distribution; one that is available from a bog standard download site that
> anyone interested in Ubuntu would likely first encounter, say https://
> ubuntu.com/download?
> 
> A caveat given at the bog standard download site could explain that the package
> manager included may only cover a subset of applications available to Ubuntu,
> and if the interested potential user wants to include other package managers
> then maybe they should be directed to another site with a distribution that
> bundles other package managers as well.
> 
> I would think that package managers are software like any other. Can't one
> therefore install another package manager through one they already have
> installed? Why not then just include a single package manager in the basic
> distribution, and leave the question of installing others to the user in this
> way?

is EXACTLY the already existing, ridiculous mess in which I have been
living in for years: being forced to use multiple package manager, all
without any clue of what the others are doing, and no way to work
together.

No offense meant, really, but please do not propose as the solution
what is just a different packaging of THE original problem. I already
wrote every further explanation I could add here elsewhere, so it's
better to repost that link once more, than burdening the whole list
with pasted text that many may not want to receive:

https://stop.zona-m.net/2022/01/the-sorry-sorry-state-of-linux-packaging/

	Marco

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