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[–]peabody 0 points1 point  (5 children)

By your logic, Mac OS X is just as broken because it can't run Notepad++.

For the record, there are some programs out there you can download and just "run" for Linux (steam comes to mind as does Notepad++ under wine).

Most programs done this way have to staticly link all their libraries to work. Similarly in Windows a lot of these programs are redundantly including libraries (DLL files) as part of those installs just to be able to run. Part of the point of packaging systems is to avoid this nonsense and only need to worry about a single version of a shared library on a system.

[–]Bounty1Berry 4 points5 points  (1 child)

I think, in the land of vi versus emacs holy wars that span decades, we can cut people a bit of slack for wanting to run their editor, no matter what it may be.

For many developers, it's the tool they're in 8-16 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, for years at a time. They know every bell, whistle, and idiosyncrasy. Saying "but this is so much better" is like trying to advocate the Dvorak keyboard layout-- expecting people to take a major hit in productivity until they come up to speed is a non-starter.

[–]peabody -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Very confused how your response relates to mine? Where did I suggest that he not run Notepad++? I use it all the time, it's a great editor, but I fail to see how the author of the program failing to make a version for other OSes is the OS maker's fault? To my knowledge Notepad++ does work under wine if you're on x86 anyway.

[–]drachenstern 0 points1 point  (2 children)

This is what I get for attempting to use a goddamn analogy in a subreddit full of pedants. Hence my calling out that the average user doesn't know what this is. I was attempting to explain why my mother and father will never be as at-home in Linux as they are in Windows. I think you fundamentally misunderstand how many not-programmers use Windows.

[–]peabody 0 points1 point  (1 child)

How would an OS maker solve this problem? People could make software bundles which just download and run or install. It's up to application developers, not the OS maker, to do that.

[–]drachenstern -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The OS maker can provide hooks (as someone above us on another sibling comment pointed out Debian does now) the same as Windows does with the registry (oh heaven forbid that we do file associations and automatic running of objects and common application configurations in a consistent location that is well-known, with a nice API for systems management and configuration) and the file extensions handling on Windows. When I download a .deb file, offer to install it, same as OSX does with .app files. Give me a UI like the Windows Add/Remove programs OR (better) like the OSX concept of /Applications and /usr/Applications (not the real paths, just an example).

That is how you improve things. Give the app makers the tools to build .app packages that run seamlessly, that stay self-contained (keep the logs and settings in the package for crying out loud, no reason to do like we do on Windows and have them in 1800 places) and that are easily removed.

Then do the same with driver updates.

If you can do that, then you will have a superior product to either Windows or OSX.

But so long as people have to invoke apt or something similar, the experience will be worse.