this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Dumb error messages like that have to do with the UI and UX. The user interface (UI) in APT has mostly to do with how easily users see, recognize, and understand descriptions of errors (that is, how text appears and is organized), and the user experience (UX) in APT has to do with how easily users can, say, follow-up, within the tool, to resolve those errors.
An example of a better UI in APT could be grouping to-be installed packages with clear linebreaks and color, or highlighting how much space is to be used by bolding it. All good stuff that isn't gonna kill my eyes when I have to scroll around to find what was / wasn't installed properly.
And that scrolling around is all about the UX. An example of a better UX could be installation bars rather than percentages to keep the screen from scrolling past errors too quickly, affordances for users to make decisions within APT to resolve dependency issues without it dropping back into the terminal (again, dumb error messages), or providing help within the interface without having to back out to the terminal and use APT with an operator.
I think it would be great to keep those error messages you mention, like, front-and-center, even after an operation has wrapped up. Who wants hunt/grep through a full log?