Desktop: Linux Package Management - Why Don’t We Build For Each Distro

Development
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For Linux, installing Joplin requires to use the terminal installer, which is a good general solution. However, if we can have package manager builds, then it will be more convenient for Linux users, especially now since there is a trend for many not-so-expert computer users to switch to Linux because it is legally free. For theses users especially, it will be convenient if we can have distro specific packages, which shows up directly in the software manager/center GUI. Also it will support updating the app via the automated system updates.

Some options that work cross Linux distro are:

Otherwise we will have to have three seperate solutions:

  1. .deb file for Debian and its derivatives (Ubuntu, Mint, Kali…)
  2. .rpm file for Red Hat and its derivatives (Fedora, CentOS, also OpenSUSE, …)
  3. AUR for Arch and its derivatives (Manjaro, …)
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Snap and Flatpak both were problematic with the libraries Joplin uses and AppImage was considered the default since Electron builder could easily produce it. Distro-specific packages have been talked about several times and the main team just doesn’t have the resources available for supporting all of the package managers but individuals that are skilled enough and can maintain them are welcomed to an unofficial extent.

@t0dd, you are the only repo maintainer I’ve seen being fairly active here. Got any thoughts you can add to this?

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