Part of what’s making learning Linux so difficult for me, is the idea of how fragmented it is. You can install programs with sudo apt get (program). You can get programs with snaps. You can get programs with flatpaks. You can install with tar.gz files. You can install with .deb files. You can get programs with .sh files. There’s probably more I don’t know about.
I don’t even know where all these programs are being installed. I haven’t learned how to uninstall them yet. And I’m sure that each way has a different way to uninstall too.
So that brings me to my main question. Why not consolidate all this? Sure, files CAN be installed anywhere if you want, but why not make a folder like /home/programs/ where it’s assumed that programs would be installed?
On windows the programs can be installed anywhere, but the default is C:/windows/Program Files x86/ or something like that. Now, you can change it all you want when you install the programs. I could install it to C:/Fuckfuckfuck/ if I wanted to. I don’t want to, so I leave it alone because C:/Windows/Program Files x86/ is where it’s assumed all the files are.
Furthermore, I see no benefit to installing 15 different programs in 7 different folders. I begrudgingly understand why there’s so many different installation methods, but I do NOT understand why as a collective community we can’t have something like a standardized setting in each distro that you can set 1 place for all your installation files.
Because of the fragmentation of distros, I can understand why we can’t have a standardized location across all distros like Windows has. However I DON’T see why we can’t have a setting that gets set upon each first boot after installation that tells each future installation which folder to install to.
I would personally pick /Home/Programs/, but maybe you want /root/Jamies Files/ because you’re Jamie, and those are your files.
In either case, as we boot up during the install, it would ask us where we want our program files installed. And from then on, no matter what method of install you chose, it would default to whatever your chosen folder was.
Now, you could still install other places too, but you would need to direct that on a per install basis.
So what’s the benefit of having programs each installed in seperate locations that are wildly different?
One of the big problems I see with Linux is the lack of software that people know. The response seems to often be “Well we don’t have THAT, but we have this alternative…”. And the reason for that is the big name software sticks to where they know the userbase is.
Android on the otherhand IS where the userbase is. You’re either on iPhone, or you’re on Android. So there’s a lot of software already available, ready to run. It would work the same on both your phone and PC, since it literally is the same apk. And it will always have support, due to being one of the main ways people use phones.
The fact that Linux HASN’T found way to use APKs and android based distros baffles me, as it already has a MASSIVE foothold into what people know. There’s so much potential there! Imagine plugging your cell phone into a desktop via a dock, or a usb cable, or even some wireless communication (not bluetooth or wifi), and suddenly your entire PC set up is actually running off your phone. For most people, their cell phone would be a good enough desktop if it had a desktop mode. I connected a keyboard with trackpad, to my Samsung A8 android tablet, and don’t feel the need for an actual laptop. I use Win-X launcher to give it a traditional desktop launcher feel, and I’m happy with it.
I don’t understand what you are saying. Android is missing a bunch of stuff that linux users rely on for a full desktop experience. They have completely different use cases. Android isn’t designed with desktop in mind, Linux is. A lot of the linux apps I rely on aren’t on android and vice versa.
That’s exactly my point. I’m saying since it runs on the same format anyways, why NOT make it run on both? Then when someone uses an app on their phone, you could convince them to use that same app on a desktop, since they know it.
And then, once it’s established to people that Android and Linux work together, publishers will start designing their Android apps like a hybrid. Eventually phones would just become Linux distros on a phone. And when you get home, you connect a mouse/keyboard, and switch to PC Mode. And eventually every Linux program would work on Android, and every apk would work on Linux distros.
And both ecosystems would gain a huge amount of software.
it’s not the same format. android is using an old linux kernel, yes, but the two systems are not compatible at all.
interestingly, what you’re talking about exists. it’s called samsung dex. they are cancelling it because nobody uses it.
You can run Waydroid for android app support. I’m not really sure I understand what you are saying. “Big name” proprietary software will never come to Linux as there is no incentive for companies to spend money on that. You technically can run pretty much any Android app on Linux but that’s a privacy nightmare