If you’ve hopped between Linux distributions as much as I have, you know that each major family of distros introduces you to a different package manager.

If you’ve hopped between Linux distributions as much as I have, you know that each major family of distros introduces you to a different package manager. At first, it can feel a bit daunting (apt on Debian/Ubuntu, dnf on RHEL/Fedora, pacman on Arch, and zypper on openSUSE), but these tools all serve the same purpose of installing and updating software.

After using Linux for years (across everything from Debian to Arch-based systems), I’ve grown comfortable with all of them. Even niche distros like Slackware, Gentoo, and Void. In this post, I’ll break down the major package managers, how they differ, and what it’s like to use each one. We’ll also touch on the universal package formats (Snap and Flatpak) that aim to work across distributions, and lastly mention a few niche package management systems. Let’s dive in!

  • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
    7·
    3 days ago

    KDE’s Discover is pretty magical. In Plasma 6, you don’t even need to install a bunch of separate plugins for it. Except I think they still make you sign off on Flathub (but give you instructions on how to do it)

    • entwine@programming.dev
      61·
      3 days ago

      Discover is probably the worst app in the entire KDE suite. It’s the only aspect of the Linux desktop that frustrates me, and I’m nearing 10 years of full time Linux desktop usage.

      Oh, you accidentally opened Discover? Now you gotta sit and twiddle your thumbs while it updates/downloads a bunch of stuff very slowly with no way to interrupt it. It also locks the system package manager, so you literally cannot do anything else package management related until Discover slowly decides to finish doing something you never asked it to do.

      • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I also don’t like how seemingly some parts of KDE like themes and widgets don’t seem to update through the terminal during a normal system update, you have to remember to open Discover once every few weeks and update them all separately.

      • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
        3·
        3 days ago

        Huh. I cannot personally relate to anything you’ve said there. Maybe we’re using different versions? The only issue I’ve had with package managers (aside from Flatpak file access, snap… just everything to do with snaps, and Pacman acting like it’s never heard of any of my mirrors if I haven’t updated in a couple of weeks, and official Nvidia drivers breaking my xorg.conf in half) is wiping out my entire desktop suite through Synaptic back in the day (entirely my own fault).
        I suppose there are worse ways to learn to read the “these packages will be removed section”.

    • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
      2·
      3 days ago

      But Discover on an Arch based system (EndeavourOS) isn’t that great. It only supports Flatpak, not the system packages.