The sad state of app distribution on Windows and macOS continues to trip up first-time Linux users. It's still wildly prevalent to ignore the platform app store in favor of going directly to a company’s website to download apps on those platforms—and that makes it confusing to new Linux users who would be best served by using their OS’s built-in app store, instead.
We do some things—like Flathub badges for the web—to help combat this, but it’s still a losing battle: major ISVs show downloads for “Debian” and “RPMs” which new users don’t understand. I’ve seen new users across elementary OS, Endless OS, and Fedora all get decision paralysis: “I don't know if I need the Debian or Red Hat version” or, "It doesn't show Endless OS so I guess I can’t get it”
I wonder if it’s something we can combat more proactively.
Adding something to a first-run tour doesn't seem to be a good solution; we’ve seen most people skip/close that on Endless OS, at least.
I sort of hate to suggest it, but maybe something _similar to_ (but distinct from!) what Windows to direct people to Edge instead of another browser is actually viable; think: a pre-installed browser add-on that has a list of known download sites and displays a message to direct people to the app store?
…Like, “This app may be available in App Center. Installing from App Center is preferred for improved integration plus security and privacy features. [Check App Center]”
If a user gets as far as trying to download a .deb or .rpm (or even .exe!), we have a utility in Endless OS that kicks in and does a decent job here directing them to the app store. But I get the feeling that we’re losing/confusing people before they even get that far.
The problem can can also be approached from the other direction: ISVs *please* stop promoting .deb/.rpm files—or at least relegate them to a nerdy section down below—and adopt Flatpak!
You can easily target Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat, Fedora, elementary OS, Endless OS, Steam Deck(!), Arch, etc. with Flatpak, all with minimal-to-zero user setup.
…Maybe do that?
@cassidy appstream:// links are cool, but even better is a repology.org badge, so users can know whether it's available in their distro, and whether their distro has an outdated version. All the ISV has to do is 1. Release their software under an open source license. 2. Package their software for one distribution.
You can easily target every Linux distribution with no extra work because people will step up to patch your software to run on their system. #OpenSource #FreeSoftware
