(Rant) Linux really needs to do a better job with package management... (lemmy.zip)

submitted 1 day ago by ramble81@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.world

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A sample journey when trying to install software:

Try your distros repos, it’s either not there or an older version
Oh wait, you need to add their repo to your list and try again
Actually, they don’t have a repo, but you can install this deb/rpm from their site
Nevermind, it actually needs to be installed with pip to get the latest version
Or wait, it was actually a rust package and needs cargo
Well, this package is available as a snap
Screw it, I’ll just build it from source…. Except the dependencies I need take me through the entire journey again

It’s crazy with a large package like mesa. It uses meson, which requires it be installed via pip, and also needs rust which is best installed via a snap, but then there are dependencies it needs that require multiple paths…

On Windows: find the msi or exe and be done with it.

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[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

No, don't do that. That's how you break your system:

https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian#Don.27t_make_a_FrankenDebian

It looks like pika os is based off of debian sid, which is not compatible with debian stable.

If you want newer packages on debian stable, try backports or experimental, which target the debian stable repos and are guaranteed to be compatible and explicitly tested against with debian stable

Otherwise, it's best to switch to a distro or release (like switiching to debian sid. Don't use testing though). Or you can use distrobox/containers.

[-] erebion@news.erebion.eu 2 points 13 hours ago

Thank you for this, I immediately thought of Don't Break Debian, when I saw that reply.

this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026

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