DISCLAIMER: Arch Linux is not a beginner friendly distribution, and this is not a recommendation or good practice.

I know how to use pacman -S. I have yet to experience a Discover related issue after months of use.

  • Twongo [she/her]@lemmy.ml
    162·
    2 days ago

    why do people get intimidated by installing an arch package?

    i recently wanted to play morrowind and i use the terminal like a search engine for programs. i just typed “yay openmw” and voila it was there, checked in the aur if the package is clean and installed it by clicking enter 3 times.

    and i thout “yay _ that was easy! :3”, got off a ship in seyda neen and killed fargoth with my bare fists as soon as i locked eyes with him.

  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 day ago

    I had issues with btrfs-assistant. It’s a permissions thing, tho. Might work if I added myself as an administrator, but I like the security of needing sudo, so pacman version it is.

  • Speiser0@feddit.org
    33·
    3 days ago

    Installing something on arch is easy imo. The CLI is simple and well enough documented, and the package build system is easy to use. For comparison with ubuntu: pacman -S name is not harder than apt install name. And try to install something on ubuntu if it’s not in the official package repos.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      ubuntu: pacman -S name is not harder than apt install name.

      Eh, it’s a teensy bit harder, since you have to remember what -S means, rather than the easy to remember and plain English ‘install’. But, yeah, not much of a difference.

      And try to install something on ubuntu if it’s not in the official package repos.

      1: Go to that something’s website.

      2: look for their download/install instructions page, scroll to Linux instructions if necessary.

      3: Install instructions for Debian/Ubuntu are usually the first one listed, and typically just consist of a few commands you can copy and paste over without modifying.

      It isn’t particularly difficult in most cases.

      • Speiser0@feddit.org
        2·
        17 hours ago

        Eh, it’s a teensy bit harder, since you have to remember what -S means, rather than the easy to remember and plain English ‘install’. But, yeah, not much of a difference.

        Thanks! I initially thought about writing this in my comment in parentheses, but then didn’t do because it would’ve made the comment longer, and I’m not sure if other people want to read the pedantic truth anyways. I’m glad you filled this void.

        The instructions for installing on ubuntu only work because of ubuntu’s popularity. Also if you can copy-paste commands, you can also just follow build instructions. In arch, these commands are in the PKGBUILD, you don’t have to copy them manually. Plus you have the knowledge that you’ll have something that you can also deinstall later. Applications’ websites usually don’t have uninstallation instructions.

        • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
          2·
          17 hours ago

          I’m not sure if other people want to read the pedantic truth anyways. I’m glad you filled this void.

          Glad my pedantry could be of service, lol!

          The instructions for installing on ubuntu only work because of ubuntu’s popularity.

          True, but this is still a very real effect with real-world benefits.

          (And I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s just Ubuntu’s popularity. More like, due to Debian and Debian derivatives’ popularity, of which Ubuntu is one. Since there are so many popular distros out there that are Debian-based where Debian-style install instructions will work (and quite a few people running Debian itself), it makes sense to give Debian-style install instructions first.)

          Also if you can copy-paste commands, you can also just follow build instructions.

          In my experience, not so much.

          Because even if you follow the instructions exactly, you’ll always run into some problem due to your build environment not being quite identical to the developer’s build environment, some library being half a version number off, and then cmake fails with a cryptic error message. So then you downgrade that library to the older version and try again, and this time it fails with a different cryptic error message that you can’t make any sense of at all this time, or the compiler quits because it says the code is formatted improperly on line 1437 and now you’re left wondering whether it’s an issue with your compiler or whether you should go in and edit the source code yourself to try and fix that supposed formatting error…

          I don’t know… I’ve tried this approach a few times – usually as a desperate last resort – and it never seems to actually work. In theory, it should. In practice … good fucking luck.

      • Nalivai@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 days ago

        4: those commands were written for previous version of Ubuntu and now dependency tree doesn’t compute, also one of the commands is to add their custom repo, and you don’t have keys for it so it doesn’t work anyway. You try to remove the bad repo and now your apt is all fucked. You regenerate your repo list, googled the package and your version name, random stackexchage page gave you their live repo, but it needs a newer version of a library that incompatible with 54 of something that you already have. You learn about snap, installed 43Gb of something, it exists but still doesn’t really work because package maintaiers didn’t actually move it to snap, it was someone else. By this point you copy-pasted so many commands into your terminal you afraid it gained sentience. You call your more computer literate friend, he starts saying something about incompatible dependancies, containers, and you don’t really understand much. By the end, you decide that you didn’t actually want the software.
        Later you discover that your sound doesn’t work anymore, and there is an error when you reboot.

        Good ending: you installed Arch, installed yay and instead of remembering unmemorable -S you just do yay package_name and you’re very happy with your choices.

      • ekZepp@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        3 days ago

        -S, --sync

        Synchronize packages. Packages are installed directly from the remote repositories, including all dependencies required to run the packages.

        • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          6·
          2 days ago

          Technically correct answer but not super helpful imo. yay <package name> starts a search from which you enter your selection(s) from matches. yay -S <package name> installs the package directly, errors if it’s not found

  • rtxn@lemmy.worldM
    9·
    3 days ago

    The original image gives me strong “Shepard, Tali, and Garrus doing shenanigans” vibes.

  • meow@discuss.tchncs.de
    512·
    2 days ago

    Im sorry for all actual arch users, who are contrary to all stereotypes, not posers. If you feel the need to use Arch, and then use kde discover, or any other gui, and flatpak based installers, why are you using it in the first place?

    The CLI way, and btw the ACTUAL way the devs intended to install mainstream software for YOUR distro, is legitimately far less hard than any of you make it seem like.

    So, if you plan on using your distro correctly, and plan on stability, use your lovely package manager, or switch. You can get a rolling release distro everywhere else too, you can change every system file, everywhere else, you can change your fucking fast-/neofetch output, if you need to.

    Just use a distro that is for your skill level.

    Btw its:

    Pacman, and then -S for install, -y for your repos, and -u is for updates.

    So do me a favor and dont try to suffer.

    Thanks for reading my mindless babbling and weird, maybe even contradictory logic, have fun :3

    • LwL@lemmy.world
      111·
      2 days ago

      Having steam installed both ways was the easiest way to be logged in to 2 steam accounts simultaneously.

      But also why does it matter, the whole point of arch is that you can turn it into whatever the hell you want. If that means using discover as your main source for programs, then so be it.

    • xyguy@startrek.websiteEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

      Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

      There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux

      • meow@discuss.tchncs.de
        1·
        2 days ago

        I couldn’t find anywhere where I referred to Linux, also, Linux is, as you said, the kernel, and there are actual Distributions that do not use any GNU software (see Alpine, Chinera, LFS, Gentoo, etc.). Assuming, that every Linux-kernel based operating system is using GNU software is wrong, and for your wonderful Copypasta a thing to consider adding :3

        Meow

    • MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      2 days ago

      Mainly due to senior coworker influence lmao. I’m planning to VM some other KDE distros soon, but Arch is good enough for now, haven’t had much more than minor nuisances.

      also, I know pacman -Syu. That’s my second-most-used command (after yt-dlp)

  • PointyFluff@lemmy.ml
    429·
    3 days ago

    Imagine being so inept that you can’t use a terminal to install a terminal-based update. Arch users are posers and script kiddies and need to STFU

    • Xenny@lemmy.world
      91·
      3 days ago

      Wow look. It’s the reason that linux market share is as low as it fucking is.

      Like dude, maybe people can use the terminal just fine but prefer the GUI. What if having the GUI it really opens up accessibility to less technically competent users And promotes adoption of the OS across the board?

      What if using this GUI leads to users using the terminal for more complex tasks? Have you ever thought of that??

      Or are you too busy being some elitist snob in your basement?

  • bequirtle@lemmy.world
    236·
    2 days ago

    IME, KDE Discover and similar app stores are so unreliable, telling beginners to use them is akin to harmful misinformation

    If you need a GUI software manager, my suggestion is to not use arch

    • SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org
      6·
      2 days ago

      Hard agree. I always struggled when using Discover, as a Beginner. Don’t know if I could make it work now as a more experienced user, Because I don’t use it and don’t have a need to. Learning how to use ‘pacman -S $pkg_name’ was super simple and is very fast. Sure I don’t have a nice GUI, that lets me browse what apps are there to be installed, but I have a webbrowser for that.

    • Nalivai@lemmy.world
      53·
      2 days ago

      If you need a GUI software manager, my suggestion is to not use arch

      Arch is actually great for beginners, way better than usual alternatives like Ubuntu for example. If you need a GUI software manager, Arch or Arch derivatives are still better than a lot of the rest.
      Besides, a lot of people like fancy GUIs, nothing wrong with that. You’re right that graphic app stores aren’t amazing, but that’s shouldn’t be the norm then. I will still do everything in CLI, but I will vehemently defend our less technically advanced bretheren’s right to click their mouse on the colourful buttons

      • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I am pretty much, “for GUI” and tend to make enough KIO servicemenus to make my right click menu looong.

        But after trying out both GUI and CLI methods of managing software installation, I’d say I am inclined on using the CLI for this task.

      • bequirtle@lemmy.world
        41·
        2 days ago

        To be clear I’m not against GUI software managers, just had bad experiences with KDE Discover… and I don’t trust anyone who recommends Arch for beginners…

        If you never want to see a terminal just use Mint or whatever

        • Nalivai@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          I’m talking from experience both in education and sysadmin duties. In my life I helped hundreds of people switch to Linux, for work, for home, for everything in between, and was that helpful person that answers all their questions. I have the statistics, however informal, I know what I’m talking about. There are whole categories of problems that people encounter with Ubuntu and it’s derivatives that just categorically don’t exist in Arch. And you can trust whatever the fuck you want.