• Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    Ah the Linux help desk where you get helpful directions like “You have a problem with your dual monitor setup in your naively installed Ubuntu setup? Have you considered installing a rust micro kernel from an abandoned GitHub repo? After cherry picking some patches from a mailinglist? Also boon plep Ubuntu looser.”

    • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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      3 days ago

      I hate modern AI, but that is what we need it for. Maintaining old code bases, and not turning it into a text editor/AI API (unless that was the original intention).

      Edit: I have to add more words. Maintaining code bases includes compling and testing the code on a variety of hardware. Running tests against that code. Responding to questions. It is a massive amount of work.

      • Pippipartner@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 days ago

        Yeah Support is horrible work, I don’t maintain anything, but I ask stupid questions, which I don’t know are stupid until I get the answer and than die of shame.

        I don’t know if AI can fix that and most maintainers I had to ask for help were really helpful and friendly, but maintainance like keeping software compatible with used libraries, helping users and such is invisible work.

  • palordrolap@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    Package version 0.01: Built with libraries abc version 2, def version 0.1 and ghi version 7.2.2

    Your system has requirements: abc version 2, def version 0.2 and ghi version 8.0.0

    Package version 0.02: Requires abc version 3, def version 0.2 and ghi version 8.0.1

    You realise that those differences in version would mean that you would have to basically recompile (then debug and recompile) your entire operating system with the three upgraded packages, and deal with a full cascade of dependencies, not just the package you really want to compile, OR basically sit down and rewrite Package 0.02 from the ground up using older libraries than it was originally written for.

    You decide to make do with the old version of the package.

      • mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        That would only solve it for python, not for say c shared libraries. For that you’re in nix land or guix or if you hate yourself containers.

        I’m in nix land so I just write nix derivations so not a big deal having many versions of the same thing at once.

  • Jakob Fel@retrolemmy.com
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    3 days ago

    I don’t care for this mentality. I understand constant questions must get old for developers/contributors but the mentality that people should compile from the source is not conducive to growing FOSS. It is, however, potentially conducive to laziness from the devs. “Eh, why should I spend time releasing compiled builds? Let the plebs compile themselves.”

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Devs don’t usually package for specific distros unless it’s a generic format like Appimage that can just be downloaded. Distro maintainers need to get it into the format their package manager uses and update the list to make it available.

      • Jakob Fel@retrolemmy.com
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        3 days ago

        Yes, and that’s fine: they can compile in their preferred format and if people want a different one, then the “package it yourself” argument makes sense.

    • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      How much do you donate to FOSS?

      Edit: lol people want unpaid labor and aren’t willing to put money where their mouth is. “Yall ain’t volunteering hard enough!!”

      It’s open source. Volunteer your labor, time, advocacy, or financial assistance if you want your voice heard or continue to hope someone else does it.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    There’s so much wrong with this question.

    • things people ‘must’ have are usually worthless junk like ‘dark mode’.
    • updates people want in mainstream can sometimes break compatibility with no “just make it work” switch to disable the breakage. When this isn’t a red flag, that makes me sad and worried for the idiot in front of me.
    • and then I’m no longer tolerant of the indolent writing error in the sentence.

    Really, it’s a combination of all three of those things, and more, that prevent the incrementing of the one number in the git project that would invoke the package run and drop a new package in about 2 minutes. It’s so hard.

  • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Why even use releases? Everyone can build everything for themselves. ‘Normal Users’ are just lazy, everyone wants to know how every piece of software is built for their system, it’s not like they have other stuff to do.

    • Maki@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      I thought that was what Gentoo was doing, but they have far more binary packages nowadays than I thought they’d ever get.

      • msage@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        llvm, clang are packages I give 0 fucks about, but take a significant part of my updates. I never really got around to it, but I will try to make them binary downloads instead of building that shit. Like I understand gcc, but have 0 interest in llvm, and can’t have firefox without it… smh

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Dependencies:

    Old ass library version from 2004

    apt/dnf/pacman: package not found

    library package was last available 15 years ago before it was dropped to move to the next legacy version

    App package was available right up until last year until it was dropped for development inactivity

    Absolutely no one has a compiled version of old ass library

    Attempting to compile old ass library results in 30 other old ass package dependencies

    How in the actual world was the maintainer compiling this up to last year

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.social
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    3 days ago

    Unless it’s a JavaScript app which uses some random build system (that was popular when they started work on the app but is now outdated) that you need to set up and learn.

    Or it’s a Python app that doesn’t work because you don’t have the right version of python and backwards compatibility is a myth.

  • Lembot_0001@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    Nobody likes to figure out dependencies. And C++ template errors are sometimes completely crazy.