The C example is the wonderful happy path scenario that only manifests in dreams.
Most projects don’t have a dependency list you can just install in a single apt command. Some of those dependencies might not be even available on your distro. Or there is only a non-compatible version available. Or you have to cast some incantation to make that dependency available.
Then you have to set some random environment variables. And do a bunch of things that the maintainers see as obvious since they do it every day, so it’s barely documented.
And once you have it installed, you go to run it but discover that the fantastic CLI arguments you found online that would do what you installed this program to do, are not available in your version since it’s too new and the entire CLI was reworked. And they removed the functionality you need since it was “bad practice and a messy way to do things”.
All of this assuming the installation process is documented at all and it’s not a “just compile it, duh, you should know how to do it”.
Then why do you need cargo in the first place, sir? You install a program written i Rust just as if it isn’t. When you apt install xzy, you don’t even know what language is used to program it.
I don’t think it is the distro’s responsibility or the developer’s responsibility. I think it is up to a volunteer whether they package it for the distro, or up to you as the consumer to install it on your own, or find a distro with more packages.
The developer is only supposed to share his code. It’s the distro’s responsibility to provide binary build of famous programs so that most users don’t have to compile. When they don’t, it’s inevitable that individual users have to build it themselves. This has been the norm for decades.
Average C from source experience: (copied from Kicad)
apt get long list of dependency git clone cd cmake make sudo make install rm -r .Average Rust from source experience:
Most of the time you should probably not install from source of possible.
The C example is the wonderful happy path scenario that only manifests in dreams.
Most projects don’t have a dependency list you can just install in a single apt command. Some of those dependencies might not be even available on your distro. Or there is only a non-compatible version available. Or you have to cast some incantation to make that dependency available.
Then you have to set some random environment variables. And do a bunch of things that the maintainers see as obvious since they do it every day, so it’s barely documented.
And once you have it installed, you go to run it but discover that the fantastic CLI arguments you found online that would do what you installed this program to do, are not available in your version since it’s too new and the entire CLI was reworked. And they removed the functionality you need since it was “bad practice and a messy way to do things”.
All of this assuming the installation process is documented at all and it’s not a “just compile it, duh, you should know how to do it”.
I try not to build from source often. My computer is a potato.
Then why do you need cargo in the first place, sir? You install a program written i Rust just as if it isn’t. When you
apt install xzy, you don’t even know what language is used to program it.And if the developer only publishes the source?
That’s your distro’s problem, not the developer’s
I don’t think it is the distro’s responsibility or the developer’s responsibility. I think it is up to a volunteer whether they package it for the distro, or up to you as the consumer to install it on your own, or find a distro with more packages.
What if the developer of this C program only publishes the source code? Evil?
I think that’s valid as well.
OK, apologies, I’ll stop taking weird.
The developer is only supposed to share his code. It’s the distro’s responsibility to provide binary build of famous programs so that most users don’t have to compile. When they don’t, it’s inevitable that individual users have to build it themselves. This has been the norm for decades.
It has been, but it does seem like that’s starting to change
The distro does provide it, but I wouldn’t say they are responsible for it, unless you are paying them. Otherwise that sounds like entitlement.
As a consumer sometimes you just have to install from source. Not everything is always in apt.