Don't use Appimages (a writeup about all the reasons they are a pain for users)

Pantherina@feddit.de to Linux@lemmy.ml – 214 points –
GitHub - trytomakeyouprivate/dont-use-appimages: Appimages are an insecure packaging system with very limited use cases. Please use Flatpak instead!
github.com

Appimages totally suck, because many developers think they were a real packaging format and support them exclusively.

Their use case is tiny, and in 99% of cases Flatpak is just better.

I could not find a single post or article about all the problems they have, so I wrote this.

This is not about shaming open source contributors. But Appimages are obviously broken, pretty badly maintained, while organizations/companies like Balena, Nextcloud etc. don't seem to get that.

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What the hell are you talking about? Did you even read the post? They literally praise native package managers, statically linked binaries and even .tar archives over appimages. If you don't have any actual arguments against their point, you don't have to make shit up, you know? Using BS ad hominem to dismiss someones opinion isn't a great look.

Oh I read this overly-long breathless whining alright. Could have been like 3 bullet points - 1 of which is "doesn't create an icon for you"?

Oh my God how do I run things without an icon to tap? That "terminal" app is scary!

Man what a braindead take.

Firstly, you're not adressing the fact that your BS Ad hominem didn't even make sense. You're calling OP a "kids who grew up with “app stores”" when they are talking about prefering to get a .tar over appimages. You're now even doubling down with "That “terminal” app is scary!". I know having actual arguments is hard, but maybe just think for a second before writing something, particularly if you're so desperately trying to be snarky.

Secondly having to using the terminal is fine for experienced user who like the efficiency of it and makes sense for more advanced cli apps or development tools, but for app that are meant for an average it's just a needlessly shitty experience. Same goes for having to look up the website to download a random package from the internet that you're going to run uncontained on your system. Given how easy it is to game the SEO to land at the top, this is just begging for a virus and is an absolutely garbage system.

And it really doesn't need to be this way given that we already have better working alternatives.

You also dont use the Terminal for Appimages, its all shitty GUI patterns taken from Windows UX.

Man what a braindead take.

Yeah - probably. Not everything is Shakespeare.