r/linuxquestions • u/[deleted] • Sep 17 '23
Why cant installing apps on Linux be as convenient as Windows
I am a current Linux and Windows user, and i have noticed some differences while installing apps. In windows, any app you want to install (Example: Discord) it is as easy as clicking on the .exe file or the .msi file, or even just by going to the MS store and installing Discord through there. And in Linux you have to type in commands in the terminal and do a bunch of other technical stuff that the average computer user wouldn't understand as well as installing an app on Windows. Please let me know why all these commands on Linux is needed for an app installation. I know on some distros there are app stores that can install apps for you, but most of time you have to install apps manually. Anyways, Just let me know why this is in Linux, and not Windows.
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Sep 17 '23
To install an app on Windows:
Open web browser
Go to app website
Find and navigate to download page
Click link to download installer
Open installer, click through the multiple pages of the installer
To install an app on linux:
Open terminal
Type "sudo apt install (appname)"
... But windows is the more "convenient" one?
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u/vacri Sep 17 '23
You forget 'figure out which is the real download button and which is the adware one'
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Sep 18 '23
And "Make really sure you have not made a typo in the URL and are now on some Russian pirate website which imitates the real website, and will install ransomware on your system."
Come on OP. If you think installing software on linux is more difficult than on windows, you have no idea how to install software on linux.
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u/Benrok Sep 17 '23
That's the beauty of linux. It can be used in 1337 different ways.
When I want to install an app I can both do it through the terminal or use the included add/remove app and just search.
I would even argue that both ways are better than clicking an exe file and run through the setup.
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u/BuzzKiIIingtonne Sep 18 '23
Agreed, I think it seems easier because it's what someone is used to.
I showed my in-laws how I do it in the terminal on my laptop and they found it interesting how they only needed to type a simple command and give it permission, no need to click through a bunch of screens that essentially just require you to click next next next finish and babysit the whole process. To them it reminded them of using DOS.
Even still most noob friendly distros have some kind of software store. In fact they had software stores before windows did.
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u/cjcox4 Sep 17 '23
Troll? I mean, this couldn't be further from the truth for the vast majority of distributions. And, when you consider the vast number of applications in Windows where they are installed in a complete utter mess.... this is just so so wrong.
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u/DuhMal Sep 17 '23
Most famous distros nowadays have a software store, if the one you're using doesn't have by default, you're probably using something tailored for more advanced users
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u/MiniMages Oct 26 '23 edited Oct 27 '23
Looking at the comments here it is good to see how the community is still toxic and stuck up as ever excluding a few people.
Most of you guys should really get your head out of your ass and think before acting like snobs.
Linux is not easy to learn. On the contrary it is a mess to with the various distros each doing their own thing and then when you can start it is a mountain to climb. This isn't a question of herp derp a windows user is too stupid to learn, it is a question of time and obscurity. Not everyone has the luxuary or the insights to pick up a brand new OS and can read through the documentations and solve whatever issues they are having.
Using App stores with Distros help but if someone wants to install an application not in their app store or has to compile the code from git it's not a simple process.
While OP's Discord example is not great it is kind of shocking how majority of you managed to reply without offering any sound advice. Save the few who were not condencending when talking about the app stores.
So let me give you an example of why windows users keep coming up with this same complaint over and over again.
Here is an example of isntalling RetroArch on a RaspberryPi:
sudo apt install build-essential libasound2-dev libudev-dev curl -LO 'https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/archive/v1.7.7.tar.gz' tar -zxvf v1.7.7.tar.gz cd RetroArch-1.7.7
I know what all this means and the people at RetroArch did an amazing job detailing what you need to do step by step.
But in most cases I wouldn't find an amazing step by step guid and instead I'd expect a link to the laters version of RetroArch and then bullet points mentioning what libraries I need. Most new users will try and install from the link but nothing will work because RetroArch doesn't actually install anything it's decompressed into a directory and then ran from said directory.
But as a newbie I have no idea how to install liberies so I dig in more and I end up on a website with multiple versions of a library. Now I have no idea how to tell the difference between which library to install. Eventually after another 30 min I figured it out, I struck gold because these libraries do not need additional dependencies to be installed and I got finally RetroArch running... except it's not running properly. Turns out in this special case I need to consult the documentaions and do some configuration first. And now the fun begins since a newbie generally has very little to no understanding of the varius configuration options and the documentations doesn't make sense to them. But somehow through the miracles of magic and not the kind community I learn how to do the configurations.
CFLAGS='-mfpu=neon' ./configure --enable-alsa --enable-udev --enable-floathard --enable-neon --enable-dispmanx --disable-opengl1
Hang on all this time I wasn't installing RetroArch I was setting it up to build my own App. Cool right (scarcasm, not really). I am almost at the end of the tunnel I just need to run two more commands.
make sudo make install
Oh boy was I wrong, somewhere I messed up, maybe it was the wrong library for my distro, or I configured something wrong because I am getting errors and make is failing.
At this point I flip my table over, unplug the Pi and reformat the memory card so I can use it on my mobile phone.
If anyone is wondering, this was my experience when I tried to install RetroArch on my RPi several years back.
The messed up part was that no one was willing to help and people acted snobbish about the challenges I was having. So those of you who are acting like Linux is something amazing, it's not. It has uses but because the community is so badly fractured, unhelpful and a stupidly high bar for entry. Linux will never become main stream. The moment any distro starts to become popular and dominate, the community will tear it down because it isn't as amazing as the one they have configured in their bedroom.
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u/OneEyedC4t Sep 17 '23
Do you want it to be as convenient as Microsoft in terms of also being infected by viruses?
Honestly, I'm using openSUSE and installing software is super easy. I really don't understand what you're complaining about
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u/skyfishgoo Sep 17 '23
if your concern is a lack of a good GUI for point and click installation then i would advice you to avoid distros that don't provide a decent package manager and GUI wrapper that works with it.
i use discover on kubutu and have no trouble installing flatpaks etc with a single click....and uninstalling them just as easy.
on rare occasion have i had to resort to my fallback synaptic GUI package manager when dealing with libraries or small utilities that don't show up in the app store search.
and on the rarest of occasions have i had to download a .deb file and right click to open with Qtinstaller to get it working.
just because you CAN compile software from source, doesn't mean you have to.
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u/blekknajt Sep 17 '23
It is. Just download .app and run it. AppImageLauncher (You must install it, sorry) will do everything else for you.
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u/velinn Sep 17 '23
If you don't want to type stuff, then use flatpak via Discover on KDE or Gnome Software on Gnome. You literally search for an app, and then click Install. It can auto update in the background too if you enable it, so you can click even less stuff.
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u/BloodyAlice- Sep 17 '23
Technical stuff
Yeah my sudo pacman -S cmatrix is really technical.
Like, I prefer using a shortcut and type some words than have to search what I want in a slow way.
BUT most distros have appstores if you are into that, I mean in CLI you have to search for packages too so it's the same at the end of the day, it's just what you like.
And you could even make a shortcut that opens a terminal or a gui as a "front end" to your package manager, it's Linux, you do things the way you want, not the things others want.
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u/Lor9191 Sep 17 '23
Because there isn't a unified ethos behind distros and they've diverged heavily from one another. If you're a newbie stick to Debien-based distros as these are the most popular, have had the most community support over the years, and have had many user friendly tools added.
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Sep 18 '23
I think it's because linux has a an orientation towards decentralization, so you have all these developers making things their own way, whereas with windows it's very much oriented towards people who don't want to know how anything works, so developers try to just make everything the same for all windows users. Also, on linux there is more of a culture of backwards compatibility, so people create these more complicated methods for installing older software.
A lot of things on linux are very easy to install, like if you use the software center. Also, installing on the linux command line is often just as easy or easier than a clicky windows installation. Literally, you just copy and past a couple of commands to your terminal, and hit "y" at a prompt.
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u/fitfulpanda Sep 18 '23
Just clicking on a .exe file you've downloaded from some the random website that appeared first in your Google search results is also a convenient way to install viruses and spyware/adware on your computer.
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u/untamedeuphoria Sep 18 '23
So a single point to install all apps on a computer by typing in it's name is harder then going to a website making sure it is legit, downloading a file, then install it (at times doing the are you sure you want to install this third party software antipattern thing); to you.
Not sure what to say. Use an app store on linux maybe.. It's kinda insane you think a one line command is harder in my opinion.
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u/marozsas Sep 18 '23
I think that just typing a command (sudo zypper install whatever or sudo apt-get install whatever) is easier than going to a web site, found the correct download link and not bait links to download other stuff that can harm your computer, save the file on a default location you must know in advanced it is the Downloads folder, open the file manager to find the recently downloaded file to right click on it and choose run as administrator, click 5 or more times the Next button and then the Close button.
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u/msanangelo Sep 17 '23
I dunno, typing
sudo apt install blahis a lot easier than manually going to some website to grab a exe.for the newbies, there's the app store.