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Thank you very much! I was about to post almost the same thing, so I'll reply to your post instead (and upvote):

It's pretty funny to read a critisism of linux s/w distribution along the lines of the dificulty of distributing binaries.

This is one of the biggest security vulnerabilities of windows. 3rd parties distributing binary executables.

At least in a typical linux distro the binary is built by the distributing org, with some review of where the source comes from.

Downloading a windows app from the internet one has no idea what source is included in that binary.

I'm also not a fan of non-distro based systems such as flatpack. Again, I would prefer my binaries built by the distribution, or if need be, locally.




> At least in a typical linux distro the binary is built by the distributing org, with some review of where the source comes from.

This "feature" falls apart for nonfree software, which most commercial apps are. You can use Spotify and Steam's PPA but will similarly have no idea what source was included in them.


explain to me why the HELL should i be limited to only running binaries that my distro vendor has deigned to provide, or jump through endless hoops to obtain and build source code (which by the way might not even be obtainable OR buildable). if i have a binary from 5, 10, 15 years ago i should just be able to fucking run it on my fucking computer.


Then run your "fuzzy kitty plays on your desktop" binary executable, downloaded from we-swear-we-wont-hack-you.com, and live with the consequences.

In fact this is the way 3rd party windoze executables are typically distributed.

Nobody's stopping you...

p.s. The above seems like a trolling reply, but I always play the straight man...


> At least in a typical linux distro the binary is built by the distributing org

... which often patches upstream code in ways that upstream neither approves of nor wants to support. And then, when things break, the user can't go upstream, and the distro package maintainers simply don't have enough time to deal with all the user reports.




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