Open terminal
See whether the app is in my distro’s repos, flathub, or snapcraft (It’s not)
Go on the internet, search up the app’s name
Download the AppImage (might be a virus)
LibFuse2 is not installed (fuck me)
Install LibFuse2
Install Gearlever to integrate AppImage into my desktop
I can finally launch the app
Ah yes, downloading builds from unvetted third parties and running their installers as root. Truly the Linux way.
and this is different to windows how …?
u do realize that u can (and should) read the PGKBUILD file? and check the git url which it’s cloning. or check the sha if its a binary package.
Even if that’s needed, you can update apps w/o reboot usually (when sandboxed), and move opened files around (seriously wtf, Windows)…
When the hell would I need to update my Windows because of an app update? I only restart when there is a system update, which you have to do on Linux too if you want your kernel to stay up to date.
Well, it was what happened the last time I touched Windows in ‘22 (for work) – maybe a policy thing that a corporate app had elevated access and that’s why it forced a reboot on me for (some of the) “regular” app updates?
Yes, true.
The whole “OS update when I want an app update” is because of how dependencies work on Linux. A library is installed once and referenced by any app that wants to use it. This way, an update in the library benefits all apps using it, as bugs het fixed. Also less storage is used when the one library is used by many apps.
Windows programs keep their own versions of a library and hard link to that one. That makes the app more flexible. You can copy the app and it’s dependencies around and it will keep working. In this scenario multiple copies/versions of the same library can exist in the system, which takes more space.
Of course there is some nuance. Both operating systems can have/use shared or hard linked libraries, but this is the general gist of it.
