Traditional Packaging is not Suitable for Modern Applications
I repeatedly encounter users complaining about LTS and stable distributions having issues with application packages, but then claim that no such thing ever happens with bleeding-edge distributions. However, with my experience and knowledge with the technical side of packaging, I can’t emphasize enough that this is untrue.
Distribution model is hardly the issue here; the fundamental issue is that traditional packaging is not suitable for modern graphical applications, no matter the distribution model. And how formats like Nix and Flatpak have managed to address these fundamental problems. Interestingly, most servers do make use of containerization (i.e. Docker), because it improves reproducibility and enhances maintainability. We could take inspiration from this and adopt a similar standard that is suitable for the Linux desktop.
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My personal recommendation would be to use and promote Flatpak, as it is solely intended to extend an existing distribution, rather than replace it. Packagers won’t have to worry about packaging applications and resorting to workarounds, as Flatpak will already be taking care of that.