A sample journey when trying to install software:

  • Try your distros repos, it’s either not there or an older version
  • Oh wait, you need to add their repo to your list and try again
  • Actually, they don’t have a repo, but you can install this deb/rpm from their site
  • Nevermind, it actually needs to be installed with pip to get the latest version
  • Or wait, it was actually a rust package and needs cargo
  • Well, this package is available as a snap
  • Screw it, I’ll just build it from source…. Except the dependencies I need take me through the entire journey again

It’s crazy with a large package like mesa. It uses meson, which requires it be installed via pip, and also needs rust which is best installed via a snap, but then there are dependencies it needs that require multiple paths…

On Windows: find the msi or exe and be done with it.

    • hobata@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      You mean this one canonical african flavor of it from a hobby cosmonaut?

    • Encephalotrocity@feddit.onlineEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      No joke. My distro hop history was:

      • Mint , but it’s older so… (TBF I could have avoided a lot of grief and just stayed here),
      • Installed Bazzite , nice but my vidcard is so old it’ll be unsupported next release,
      • Tried to install Ubuntu but the installer crashed every time,
      • Debian installed but holy wtf is wrong with the package management. JFC. (it is really bad, skip if you aren’t intimately familiar with Linux),
      • Noped out of that to Fedora where it’s been amazing except for the complete assholes in the support Discord.
      • anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Curious what it is about Debian package management you found wrong, except for not having the newest stuff?
        I run Fedora on my gaming station because I needed a newer kernel than Debian Stable has by default but on my other machines Debian has been working well.

        • Encephalotrocity@feddit.onlineEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          I don’t remember the exact details. I’ve been happy on Fedora for long enough all I remember from Debian is not being able to find anything and seeing references to repo’s that don’t apply because I wasn’t on the beta stream.

          ;tldr I went through the trouble of wiping and installing another distro because of the bad vibes it gave me.