APT sucks. It fucking sucks.

There. I said it. I've been using Ubuntu for two years, and I keep hearing the praise of apt being sung over and over, and you know what? It SUCKS. It's supposed to keep everything up to date, which would be great, but a) no one maintains ANYTHING in the god damn repositores, and b) distributions FREEZE most programs against backports to PREVENT you ON PURPOSE from running the latest version, *just in case* it fucks with something else in the system.

I just downloaded the newest version of ecksdee, thinking I'd sit down and burn half an hour playing a fun open source game. Turns out I've got to compile the thing. Alright, no problem, ./configure... needs Crystal Space. Great, that's in the repositories! An apt-get later, I find out version 1.0 is in the repositories, and the game needs 1.0.1. So I need to compile that too!

This thing has been compiling for a solid 25 minutes now. I've never seen something take this long to compile.

Over the two years I've been using Ubuntu, I've had to compile from source *COUNTLESS* programs, because nobody puts the fucking new versions in the repositories. Why not? How the fuck are we supposed to use it if everything is out of date? What kind of motivation is it for developers to improve their software if it's such a pain in the ass for us to get the new versions?

It's gotten to the point where when I want to try out some small game or application like ecksdee, I first try the Windows version in Wine because the Linux version is ALWAYS such a god damn pain in the ass.

And before some fucker mentions Debian Unstable, yes it avoids the problems of distributions freezing packages, but it doesn't fix the problem of people actually updating the repos. And no, I don't want to use Gentoo because it's TOO FUCKING HARD. I shouldn't have to assemble my car from scratch just to put a new set of goddamn tires on it.

If you're wondering how interactive programs can be written in functional languages, you really should take a look at xmonad. It's a dwm-style tiling window manager in ~500 lines of Haskell. It had its first release after around a month of development, and at that point it already did things that dwm (written in C) didn't.

>>2
>>3
Saem fag!

APT does not suck. Have you ever tried the alternatives? YUM is what you should be bitching about, loser. If you don't fucking like the versions they provide, roll your own or buy a fucking mac, you prick. Most MOTU do it for free. I have 21,000+ packages in my sources list. How many people you think maintain that massive list of software? You're just a lazy ass who thinks sitting on a forum bitching about something makes you better than the person who's slaving away working to better the situation.

Welcome to Linux, buddy.

Ubuntu: Swahili for "Cant handle a simple ./configure && ./make"

>>1
try freebsd.
>>4
apt does suck. you've obviously never used a decent package management system.

gb2/comp/

>>4
No shit, I'm well aware of the fact that these packages are done for free. That's kind of my point. People throw together their own installers in seconds for Windows programs, but because of the myriad of Linux distributions, the complicated and unfriendly procedures for making .debs, the bureaucracy necessary for getting it into stable backport repositories (or the difficulty maintaining your own repository), no one bothers for Debian-based machines. Top it off with the existence of Alien, and developers only bother making rpms, letting apt users fend for themselves.

Just look at Pidgin for example. It's STILL not in the 7.04 repositories, despite having been released nearly two months ago.

>>5
Yes, because `./configure && make` always works flawlessly. Except when it doesn't, which is pretty much always. Take for example, oh, I don't know, Pidgin. What a nightmare to compile. Or Crystal Space, for example; it took over half an hour, and finally crashed. I asked the devs on IRC how to fix it and they had no idea what was wrong.

pacman -Syu

Packages are the problem. On Windows, you just get executable installers that do the job for you, even if they have to include all dependencies (OMG I wasted 4 MB!). Even better, you can just distribute the files (installers are kinda stupid too), uncompress everything, and if the software is properly developed, it should work. (Because of certain design flaws of Unices, it may be necessary to make the main executable a script that sets a few environment variables first, but it's doable).

Take Firefox as an example. Firefox for Linux is distributed in binary form (among others) which you just untar anywhere and run. No package shit, no dependency shit, no compile shit. That's how Unix, and especially Linux software should be made.

Linux is a pain in the ass to use because it's a fucking mess; the FHS is even messier than Windows, and what every distro does is even messier than the FHS. Then you have the GNU compile zealots, and general stupidity.

My favourite package managers are these: cp, mv, rm.

I hear Arch is all the rage right now. I'll stick with gentoo and paludis.

I couldn't make my mouse work on debian.
All my debian-using friends have no idea how to make it work.

>>2

Hay, I'm copypasta now!

>>All

This thread seems to not understand the concept behind the Ubuntu/Debian-style release system. When a release is made, package versions are frozen except for security/stability fixes. That way they can test and support *one* set of software instead of an almost infinite variety of versions. What you want is a distribution with a rolling release system, of which there are many.

By the way, this has nothing to do with APT, which rocks. The DEB package format kinda sucks, though. Too complex. At least it's better than RPM.

gb2 debian unstable and enjoy your lack of stability, faggot

>>15
If I want to enjoy my lack of stability I'll use Gentoo!

>>1
Did you try the binary version they offer? Or do you just prefer the chance to complain about compiling?

http://surfnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ecksdee/ecksdee-bin-0.0.9.tar.bz2

>>8
Yes, because `./configure && make` always works flawlessly.

Ever heard about dependencies or uninstalling?

>>18
Ever heard about sarcasm?

>>10 makes good points. In fact it does because it's me.

this thread is old, also, anus