I’ve been transitioning to Linux recently and have been forced to use github a lot when I hadn’t much before. Here is my assessment.

Every github project is named something like dbutils, Jason’s cool photo picker, or jibbly, and was forked from an abandoned project called EHT-sh (acronym meaning unknown) originally made by frederick lumberg, forked and owned by boops_snoops and actively maintained by Xxweeb-lord69xX.

There are either 3 lines of documentation and no releases page, or a 15 page long readme with weekly releases for the last 15 years and nothing in between. It is either for linux, windows, or both. If it’s for windows, they will not specify what platforms it runs on. If it’s for Linux, there’s a 50% chance there are no releases and 2 lines of commands showing how to build it (which doesn’t work on your distro), but don’t worry because your distro has it prepackaged 1 version out of date and it magically appears on flatpak only after you’ve installed it by other means. Everything is written in python2. It is illegal to release anything for Mac OS on github.

  • BlackLaZoR@fedia.io
    3·
    27 days ago

    Wait until you install some package and then scratch your head not knowing how to run it.

    • SanicHegehog@lemm.ee
      1·
      27 days ago

      Then think “I’ll figure it out later” but you never do. Only to be reminded of it a month later when you happen to see it scroll by in an apt-or-whatever package upgrade.

      “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I should check that thing out again” you think to yourself. But you never do. Repeat for eternity.

    • Darohan@lemmy.zip
      0·
      27 days ago

      Helix Editor did this to me. They have so much documentation on their site about how to use the editor, how to extend it, theme it, etc., etc. What they didn’t seem to document, though, is that the binary is named hx, not helix :/

    • Alk@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      27 days ago

      Yes the world of github and linux is vast and I am like a newborn baby. I hope to visit your bubble one day my friend.

  • _____@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    27 days ago

    Yeah. Pretty much.

    The worst part about free Linux programs is that they have 0 visibility or marketing.

    Almost everything I know of is from other people whom are far more passionate about keeping track of the foss landscape.

    Sorry, guys I don’t check AUR every night before bedtime.

  • superkret@feddit.org
    1·
    27 days ago

    Be the change you want to see in the world.

    I’m currently in the process of updating Slackware’s documentation, some of which hasn’t been touched in 12 years.
    It’s completely out of date, so no one uses it anymore.
    And because no one uses it, no one updates it.

  • Vash63@lemmy.world
    0·
    27 days ago

    As someone who works fairly extensively with all three major platforms… You’re definitely wrong about macOS here. Almost everything on GitHub that works on Linux also works on Mac, aside from GUI applications which are often more OS dependent. The readme pages often just lump Mac and Linux together as they can be pretty similar, especially for things written for interpreted languages (python) where it’s often literally the same.

  • Nafeon@pawb.social
    0·
    26 days ago

    “It magically appears in flatpak only after you’ve installed it by other means”

    I kid you not this happened to me 3 times already.

  • Guenther_Amanita@slrpnk.net
    0·
    27 days ago

    Just a small (or maybe big?) tip for you 🙂

    If it’s for Linux, there’s a 50% chance there are no releases and 2 lines of commands showing how to build it (which doesn’t work on your distro), but don’t worry because your distro has it prepackaged 1 version out of date

    There’s a tool called Distrobox.
    You can install it (via CLI I think?), and then manage it the easiest graphically way via BoxBuddy (available in your Software Center), or just the terminal if you prefer it.

    With it, you can screw all those “Doesn’t work on my distro” moments.

    You’re on Linux Mint? No problems, here’s the AUR for you!

    ✨✨✨ BONUS: Your OS won’t break anymore randomly due to some AUR incompatibility, because everything is containerized! ✨✨✨

    Even if you run Arch, use it to install AUR stuff. Or Debian/ Ubuntu, add PPAs only via Distrobox.

    It’s absolutely no virtual machine. It basically only creates a small, lightweight container with all dependencies, but it runs on your host. Similar to Flatpaks.

    You can also export the software, and then it’s just like you would have installed it natively!
    Your distro choice doesn’t matter anymore. You now can run any software written only for Suse, an abandoned Debian version 10 years ago, Arch, Fedora, Void, whatever. It’s all the same.

    I hope that was helpful :)

  • Petter1@lemm.ee
    0·
    27 days ago

    If your distro was arch, you most likely have the nightly build available on the AUR

    • UnityDevice@startrek.website
      1·
      27 days ago

      Aur and pacman are 90% of why I use arch.

      Also fyi to OP: never install software system-wide without your package manager. No sudo make install, no curl .. | sudo bash or whatever the readme calls for. Not because it’s unsafe, but because eventually you’re likely to end up with a broken system, and then you’ll blame your distro for it, or just Linux in general.

      My desktop install is about a decade old now, and never broke because I only ever use the package manager.

      Of course in your home folder anything goes.

      • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
        1·
        27 days ago

        Absolutely. Funky installs go in ~/bin. (Ok, plus the valve directory)

        Everything else comes from standard repositories.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        27 days ago

        Also fyi to OP: never install software system-wide without your package manager. No sudo make install, no curl .. | sudo bash or whatever the readme calls for.

        And that is why Linux isn’t ready for mass adoption.

        I had to fuck around for hours to make my wifi adapter work and everyone was referencing this one project on GitHub and the way to install it and what actually worked was to sudo make install.

        You’re the first person I see that’s saying not to do that, I had to use instructions from the Linux Mint forum to try and get it installed the first time and no one mentioned that, I found alternative projects but none of them had clear instructions “You must have installed X, Y, Z first” without any explanation how to do it.

        So, for new users, Linux is all about blind trust in strangers to make stuff work and if you have no interest in learning programming that’s what your experience will continue to be.

        • Petter1@lemm.ee
          0·
          27 days ago

          I guess you had to install lwfinger’s rtw88 backport? If true, then the problem was the outdated kernel used in mint (I guess 1.15.y at the time) should work now out of box with the new kernel update ubuntu (and therefore mint as downstream as well) released some months ago.

          I think, it is 6.2.y now and in 6.2 rtw88 got a massive update.