Making apps for Linux sucks big time. No one wants to deploy 10+ variants in a multitude of formats. The current userland in Linux is a huge clusterfuck.
If people want to see Linux on the desktop to take off for real, then here’s what needs to happen:
Userland API should be standardized. One API for all distros, no exceptions.
Userland API should be binary backwards compatible. If I build my app and it works today on Ubuntu 22, it should work tomorrow without any changes on Ubuntu 24 and RedHat 10.
GUI API should be part of userland. I don’t give a shit about GTK and Qt, I need one API which works everywhere at all times.
Deployment format should be standardized. No more deb and rpm bullshit. Just one format for all distros.
Init system should be standardized as well. If I want to auto start my app, I shouldn’t care if it’s init.d or whatever else bullshit. Just one fucking system!
The current app repo system must die. It should work like App Store - I make a dev account, I publish my apps, they pass some automated checks and then every Linux user can install my apps and they should work on every bloody distro.
There should be a distro test spec - every distro should be tested against it. If some distro doesn’t pass the test its devs get back to the drawing board and fix it.
Making apps for Linux sucks big time. No one wants to deploy 10+ variants in a multitude of formats. The current userland in Linux is a huge clusterfuck.
If people want to see Linux on the desktop to take off for real, then here’s what needs to happen: