this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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What? When was the last time you tried Linux?
With flatpak, it’s usually a one-click process to install anything nowadays.
That would be totally true if every software was distributed as a flatpak and every distro had flatpak enabled in the package manager out of the box. That's just not reality.
Not even then. For example the biggest Linux distribution in use is Ubuntu, and it doesn't have flatpak built in. So even if a flatpak of an app is available, a user of Ubuntu would have to already understand what a flatpak is, and already know that it would make the app installable on Ubuntu, and know that flatpak itself can be installed separately, and know how to use a different install method already just to get the flatpak system onto their computer in the first place
Me fail reading.
Me forgive. Reading hard.
I said “usually”, and I’m talking about mainstream distros.
Also the original comment says “the whole OS is not ready for the general public”, which is also vague. I don’t expect the “general public” to install Gentoo and suffer from this issue.
They don't all have that either
And yet they all have a package manager of some kind to install packages from. It doesn’t have to be Flatpak specifically
No, but all of them have different repos out of the box, which will lead to confusion when consumers can't find the one they need.
While I agree with most of what you said, typical users won’t run into these issues unless they’re doing something more technical (e.g installing blender or something), in which case they can ask for help.
I don’t think these people can install Windows or are pros at using it either, and in which case it’s the responsibility of whoever installed the OS to guide them through it a little like I did with my parents (they’re in their 80s and they’ve been using Linux for the past five years just fine), and I imagine those kind of people to only care about browsing the web and maybe viewing a PDF every once in a while.
I use Linux regularly, and the last time i installed an app was probably within the past 365 days
Ah. I see. That’s very informative.
I can install apps well enough, but I'm very techie, the general population isn't gonna be able to do it reasonably
You don’t need to be “techie” to install stuff from a package manager with a GUI. People use app stores on every mobile device out there and they don’t have any problems with that