I know I said in my last post I’m a noob, and, i still am, I’m just a noob who can follow a YouTube tutorial. I installed Arch, not only for its minimalistic install, but also because I love the AUR. Everything I could ever want to install is there, and anyone who wants to upload their files can. This gives a windows-like install experience, which, pardon my… spanish, is actually pretty good. Any program is free to be uploaded and installed by anyone.

My question to you is: If you do not use an arch-based distro, how do you go about installing software? I’ve heard people say that “the default package manager is enough” but I can’t be the only person who installs niche software. I wouldn’t want to only be able to install packages hopefully approved by my distro. Flatpaks are kind of annoying, in my opinion? It’s not a native install of a package, it’s sandboxed (which can be good in some cases, but in general just an inconvenience.) Compiling from source is too hardcore for me, so props if that is you, however, non-FOSS software has to be moved by hand to its specific folders and .desktop files have to be made by text. If you don’t use the AUR, how do you go about your Linux experience?

P.S. Hope you like the new sux/teal logo!

  • sturgax
    5·
    2 years ago

    I used arch for a long time and only recently switched over to fedora silverblue. One of the things I missed most was the AUR (and pacman), for sure. However, I discovered something called distrobox. It allows me to install an archlinux container and from there I can use the AUR with no problems. It’s pretty seamless, too. So, if there is something I can’t find something then it’s no problem now.

    Though, fedora has pretty much everything anyway. Flatpaks are getting damn good.

    • carrotOPM
      2·
      2 years ago

      Its crazy how containerization has gotten so efficient nowadays. Definitely keeping this at the back of my mind. Thanks!

    • ruckblack
      2·
      2 years ago

      I would try fedora but I’m still skeptical about flatpaks. Seems like it would introduce bloat and a lot of complexity that I don’t want or need.

      • sturgax
        3·
        2 years ago

        Oh, I get that. They do introduce some bloat. Though, at least for me, I have enough resources to manage it without much concern. I wouldn’t recommend flatpak’s if you want a lean, mean, machine. That’s for sure.