this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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    This just happened to me, and I did waste 1-2h because of it (feddit.org)
    submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by cows_are_underrated@feddit.org to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
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    [–] ian@feddit.uk 3 points 3 hours ago

    As a non IT person I find Linux way better for installing software. The sort of apps non IT people use. The Software store has most of what I need. There rest I install the Windows way. From a website. Apps with a Linux version almost always detect and offer a Linux button to click to install. I wouldn't know what to do if that didn't work. Ditch that application I guess. My distros are pretty standard. Not hacked about. My apps are not too weird. I've been doing it this way for 14+ years. Never needed the CLI either.

    [–] x4740N@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

    Different packages having conflicting dependency versions needed for installation

    Edit: distrobox may be a viable solution to this

    [–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

    Glad im not the only one. Thats one thing that makes me go man, people will never leave windows for this, this is insanely complex to juat install a program.

    I find it fun to learn tho

    [–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 1 points 51 minutes ago

    if you use any modern distro installing most software is braindead easy. if you have to compile something yourself (which isnt that often) it can get quite funny because one hell of a lot can go wrong.

    [–] reddifuge@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

    Windows; have to search online for correct website, sift through ads to find the download, install while avoiding malware or extra programs that try to install alongside.

    Linux; Sudo pacman -S firefox. Done

    [–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

    This is true for some but it doesn't work like that in reality. Its much easier to install on windows vs linux, thats just how it is.

    Don't even get started on flatpak vs .Deb vs compiling vs snap...explaining that to a windows user makes them about lose their mind.

    Windows wins here. Click exe. Install. Done. AND the benefit of being allowed to install to a different hard drive, which linux will not allow without a ton of hoop jumping.

    Linux is great but let's not pretend windows doesn't do certain things much better.

    Also, not being able to see all your installed programs in one place because they are a blend of .Deb, snap, flatpaks, and compiled. It becomes a mess very quick if youre not careful.

    [–] reddifuge@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

    It does work like that in reality for almost all programs.

    For obscure stuff you can use yay or whatever other user repository you want.

    yay "program name". Done

    I've been doing this for years without issue.

    Also you can list all your installed programs. On Arch it's pacman -Q and yay -Qm.

    It's so easy a baby could do it. And apparently arch is supposed to be the most difficult.

    [–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

    You're forgetting, not every program in the world exists in your repository.

    When they do, great, but doesn't always happen. Make mkv for one, you have to get the linux version off their site custom.

    Also it seems you may be one of those people driving people away from linux saying normies are idiots and need to rtfm. Maybe work on that.

    [–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 0 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

    All I see when I see this is "Linux isn't quite ready for prime time".

    Hopefully it gets less and less true.

    [–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 1 points 53 minutes ago

    This isnt true. You only have this problem with rather obscure software (which was what I tried to install)

    [–] Zink@programming.dev 3 points 2 hours ago

    I don't see that at all. This meme is referring to some niche application or to a person with their fingers all up in the nuts and bolts of their OS.

    It's common for beginner-friendly desktop distros to have Firefox and LibreOffice installed out of the box. For mainstream use that covers the vast majority.

    [–] ranzispa@mander.xyz 1 points 4 hours ago

    I at times have to install completely undocumented software. I love ccmake as it lists all available options. I guess there are other ways, but that makes it so easy.

    Then it's just a couple of days figuring out all necessary libraries.

    [–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago

    Things have gotten so, so much better over the last 5 or 6 years.

    Flatpak, appimage, docker are just brilliant.

    I recently discovered nix and am in that honeymoon phase of trying to hit every nail with that hammer.

    [–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

    damn. that's literally me.

    [–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

    On Nixos

    No nixpkg Make flake

    [–] ragas@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    No System Package

    Build System Package

    Gentoo makes it soo easy.

    [–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

    I installed and then ran Gentoo for about 9 months back when it first came out, before Robbins stepped down. I remember the install was pretty involved, but after that it was a pretty sweet system. I keep saying I'm going to go back to it, but just can't be bothered anymore. As good as it was 20 years ago, I'm sure it's even better now.

    [–] ragas@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

    Yeah, basically handling all the caveats is now automated and you can choose to use binary packages.

    [–] gerowen@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

    Flatpak/flathub is your friend. I've been using Linux for 20+ years and I'm to a point where if it's not available as a deb, flatpak, system package or at the bare minimum an executable binary/script I just don't bother. Compiling should be done by the software vendor and not required of the user unless they specifically want or need to.

    [–] JamBandFan1996@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago

    God bless flatpak for these cases

    [–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    I honestly can't remember the last time I've come across a package that I needed that so obscure that it wasn't found somewhere as at the very least an appimage, if not a flatpak. I haven't had to build from source in I don't even know how many years now.

    [–] ranzispa@mander.xyz 1 points 4 hours ago

    General use package? Sure Specialized package to do something specific in a specific field? Good luck.

    I still have flashbacks of installing a c++ library which had to be transpired (or whatever the term is) to c# for another library to work, and having to go manually fix several function and type declarations manually to make it work. And we are talking about the golden standard library in the field...

    [–] Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    Try making music on Linux. You'll be compiling obscure shit and tweaking configs all the time.

    [–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

    True. But I was coming at if from the perspective of an every day user coming from Windows. email, word processing, internet, etc... Even gaming and photo editing.

    The more professional the needed software gets, of course the more obscure it gets.

    [–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago

    What? Its something I do quite regularly.

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    [–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    When the dependencies need dependencies and then those dependencies need dependencies, the rabbit hole is endless!

    [–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 1 points 15 hours ago

    For those of you old enough to remember, rpm dependency hell

    [–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

    Times like this are an argument for why it's OK to occasionally reinvent the wheel.

    [–] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

    no system package

    install distro that has it on a chroot

    [–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    Yeah sure, I gonna setup everything again just because a single piece of software is not available on my pc

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    [–] Meowie_Gamer@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    so true

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    [–] 1984@lemmy.today 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

    You didnt waste those hours, you learned something.

    [–] Deebster@infosec.pub 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

    Nothing that useful, apart from learning again that reading error messages properly can save you much pain.

    [–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

    That’s a useful lesson to have stick

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