• foggy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well the solution here is to just use the superior distro, naturally.

    This post will surely upset nobody.

    • xeekei@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You’re right! If a deb file exists then surely it’s in the AUR. ABS will repackage it seamlessly for you and then install it directly with Pacman.

    • Neko the gamer@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      is there a way to make it work like a rolling release of sorts? i’d want to use debian, but i don’t want to stay with old packages and wait 2 years for an update

      • Wulff@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You could use debian testing. It’s a somewhat “rolling-release” model. You will get more up to date packages with more stability too.

        You could also use unstable, but I wouldn’t recommend it personally.

        Edit: if you really need the most up to date version of some packages, you can pin them to use the unstable repo. This would be a pretty reasonable solution.

      • lwe@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        You could just go with Debian unstable. I rarely ran into issues while running it in a rolling release style.

        Debian testing might also work for you. But it will have a freeze window before each release.

        • this_is_router@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          As will have debian unstable. That’s the way it goes, for a few months every few years it slows down until the new stable gets released. Testing is just 10 days after unstable to avoid the biggest bugs.

          Never had big problems with debian unstable in 15 years though, as long as you use apt-listbugs

  • f00f/eris@startrek.website
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    1 year ago

    Even worse: the .deb file’s dependences are only available in a specific version of Ubuntu LTS or with PPAs.

  • penquin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    That’s where the AUR comes in. Some neckbeard somewhere has already made an AUR package of that.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Then we should appreciate them. Is it fair to call them neckbeards when they toil away at the code coalface for our benefit?

      • penquin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        This is literally me calling a marine “Jarhead” or “grunt”. Sorry, military habits never die. I’m showing them love by calling them that, at least that’s what my intentions are.

        • intelati@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          I’ve daily drivered arch for a couple months now. Only a few time have I not searched and found a wiki/forum with the precise error/comment and a solution/fix for the problem.

          It’s almost literally insane.

            • penquin@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I have run all kinds of distros. Loved them all, btw. But nothing comes even close to arch and its derivatives. I’ve been running emdeavourOS for almost 1.5 years now and it’s been fantastic. The AUR is godsend. I have never bothered with flatpaks, snaps or appimages. AUR has everything I need.

            • intelati@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              I’m going from Ubuntu 16 or so (took a break since then). The flexibility/customization/wikis of arch make it better IMO

            • bitwaba@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              If you’re moderately comfortable with the command line, Arch is amazing. I find it considerably easier to find software I want to install, and find answers to problems I have.

              I would say that if you’re not interested in learning when something goes wrong, so you’re not really interested in anything other than i don't care I just want it to work then it’s not the distro for you.

              The rolling release style is really great and Arch is rock solid, so if you are looking for something a little more user friendly, Endeavor is worth a try as it is Arch based but focused on an easier to use system.

              I installed Arch for the first time in March of last year for my primary gaming PC. Previously my gaming PCs were windows but I keep a separate file server and HTPC each running Ubuntu. I’m in the process of switching both of them over to Arch now because I just consider package management and updates so much easier.

              • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The rolling release style is really great and Arch is rock solid

                Truly don’t mean to be argumentative, but, I read all the time how an update will semi-brick it, requiring repair. ?

  • arthurpizza@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Nothing Distrobox can’t fix. I can run AUR, RPM, and even those deb files that only run on Ubuntu for some damn reason on my Debiain system.

    It’s probably already in your default repos too.

    • Neko the gamer@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      even those deb files that only run on Ubuntu for some damn reason on my Debiain system.

      FUCK i understand now! the software i wanted to install had a .deb but its website said it was for ubuntu 20.04, no wonder it didn’t work on a debian container!

      i’ll try this RIGHT NOW, hope it works!

      • littlecolt@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s seriously frustrating. I had this happen just last night, but fortunately I was able to get the app I needed another way.

      • Neko the gamer@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        1 year ago

        it didn’t work, but i soon found out by looking at it’s entry on the AUR that the package is itself broken, not the distro environment it’s supposed to be installed on

    • canni@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      How does distro box do with more complicated gui based applications?

    • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Just switched a couple of my systems from Pop and Fedora (gnome) to Debian 12 w/ KDE Plasma.

      All in l I like it. I don’t like where Canonical or RedHat are moving, for the FOSS consumer. Canonical is making huge strides as an enterprise distro but for home use I’ve really moved away from it since Unity.

      Originally I went Fedora because my office was a RHEL shop but we’re moving towards Ubuntu.

      • Subverb@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m a light Linux user with windows 11 on my work dev machine.

        I started using Linux Mint and it’s the right speed for me. Switched to Mint LMDE 6. It’s smooth.

  • VegaLyrae@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Thankfully RHEL/Centos/Fedora also get attention thanks to the large corporate influence.

    Anything else can just be compiled from scratch, after spending 6 hours trying to figure out what ajfiwn-0-libs-dev is in redhat land, only to find out it was libfiwn-devel all along.

      • AProfessional@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nobody needs a website, literally just dnf install "pkgconfig(libfoo-1)" or dnf install /usr/include/fooheader.h. Most sane package manager ever.

        • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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          1 year ago

          That’s a thing?? Amazing, I just found out about this not long ago, now seeing that being integrated in the package manager too is next level!

          • AProfessional@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s actually just metadata in the rpms, nothing special. OpenSUSE adds even more like “typelib(Gtk-3.0)”.

  • satnififu@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Give it 2 days and chances are someone has already published a PKGBUILD in the AUR

      • Genericusername@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Arch User Repository. If you’re using Arch, you get the basic stuff from the official repositories. But for most programs there’s the AUR. They’re often less polished, some of it may be proprietary. There are package managers dedicated for it, that also know to handle the official repositories. Read more

    • Birchoff@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s still just mid level. Cool people codes everything from scratch by just looking at some pictures

      • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Only n00bs code their programs from scratch. Cool people build their own kernel, OS, compiler, and coding language, and they already have that program built in.

        • Senuf@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Only n00bs build their own kernel, OS, compiler, and coding language, and they already have that program built in. Cool people create their own universe, with different laws of physics and constants, then they make it act as a whole computing entity capable of anything, it then creates a simulation in which we discuss this stuff.

  • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Debtap is suprisingly easy to use after switching to arch (highly recommend), but i actually love .deb files. Obviously it’s a slight risk to the user in the similar way dot EXE’s can be for windows , but they really do simplify package management for when you’re newer to linux.

  • Melco@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This right here is the reason why after district hopping I decided to settle into the Debian universe. Linux is a ton of fun to play and tinker with but if you want to use your computer to do actual work you need to use an OS with software avaliable to run.

    Of course Debian is the only real Linux any user would ever need. Free as in freedom, all the software and been running since the beginning. Why bother bother anything else.

    • Lexi Sneptaur@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      Arch is viable because the AUR is full of converted debs and package managers keep things up to date. Most distros have a method to install this kind of software but honestly universal out of the box flatpak support can’t come soon enough for consumer distros. We need canonical to give up on snap for Ubuntu desktop

    • Baleine@jlai.lu
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      1 year ago

      Deb files are debian packages, so if you’re not on debian you can’t install it

        • tslnox@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          I’m on Gentoo for example. I can write an ebuild to automatically download said deb, extract it, install it with the package manager… And if the site has any semblance of organization involved, I can write one ebuild that will always download the version specified in its name, so when there is an update, I can copy the ebuild, change its name to new version and if the dependencies or structure didn’t change, it will install just fine without any work.

          • Genericusername@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I am quite comfortable finding my way around ArchLinux, and recently decided to give Gentoo a try. I didn’t expect it to be that much harder but all the cflags, emerge, conflicts and updates feels like black magic. I guess that if you know your way around Gentoo, reverse-engineering a deb file is not a real challenge. However I’m assuming that most Linux users would hope for a less involved solution.

        • Lime66@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago
          • Incredibly old and likely no longer updated packages
          • the devs are expected to backport their security fixes to these packages, which can create an outrageous amount of work

          I don’t understand why would people not be on debian does not compute

          I don’t understand why someone would want to be on Debian, what actual advantage does it have.

          • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Stability, slow changes, predictable, strong history, lots of distributions are based on it, the list goes on and on. I don’t use it but it’s kinda stupid to question it’s relevant qualities considering how much it’s brought to the Linux community.

          • molochthagod@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Relax, guys, Debian and not Debian both have their pros and cons. The variety of options is what’s so beautiful about Linux.

      • LeFantome@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        If it is only available as a .deb, it is probably targeting Ubuntu specifically.

        Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian and uses the same package format. Ubuntu is much more popular though and the packages are not completely compatible.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If it is only available as a .deb, it is probably targeting Ubuntu specifically.

          Did you mean versus another Debian derivative like PopOS, or versus a non-Debian derivative like Fedora, etc.?