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musingsnort commented on Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu   old.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/c... · Posted by u/sm4rk0
AussieWog93 · 4 years ago
There's a very strong reaction here from users, but overall if more software became snap-only (or FlatPak-only, or anything-only), it would solve one of Linux's biggest pain points as a software developer.

MSI on Windows is completely fucked, PKG on Mac has a few footguns, but at least they're universal, decades-old standards supported by mature tooling. You release an MSI/PKG, and you're done. Works on every Windows/Mac system, no issues.

On Linux, an OS with 3% market share, there are more competing standards to count: Deb, RPM, snap, FlatPak, AUR, AppImage and probably a dozen other semi-popular ones. Every individual user has their opinion (and they'll voice it!) as to which standard is the best. At best, this leads to God knows how many man-hours of duplicated work packaging and QAing. At worst, it leads to the dev abandoning the thought of Linux altogether.

Linux on Desktop simply can't move forward by continued bike-shedding over frankly irrelevant details. Even if the only rationale for a standard is "Because Mike Shuttleworth said so, and he got a phone call from Mandela in space", that's a massive improvement over the current status quo.

musingsnort · 4 years ago
Indeed - and they provide separation between a stable OS (which debs are fine for) and frequent desktop app updates. I've been using Snap, Flatpak and Appimage for desktop/productivity apps (Krita, DigiKam, Spotify, Signal, calibre etc) where possible. Its been amazing getting updates in a timely fashion, sometimes straight from the developer, instead of having to wait years for the DEBs to be updated.
musingsnort commented on PSA: Get Computer Glasses   tbray.org/ongoing/When/20... · Posted by u/timbray
musingsnort · 4 years ago
This is good advice, I just got my first pair and they make a huge difference in comfort, and being able to stare at a screen throughout the day. Particularly if you are nearsighted and already wear glasses, the need for computer glasses may sneak up on you. I found that by afternoon/evening my eyes were tired and having problems focusing on a screen with my regular glasses.

The way my eye doctor explained it, there's two compounding problems - we start losing the ability to focus up close in our 40s, and distance-vision glasses push the near focus point further out. Eventually the near point is close to or further than the distance to your monitor/laptop, and your eye muscles have to strain to be able to focus.

u/musingsnort

KarmaCake day7September 14, 2021View Original