This Is the Secret to a Hassle-Free Linux Desktop
If you've ever tried Linux as an alternative to Windows or macOS, you know using it can be tricky, to say the least. As someone who uses Linux as his primary operating system, I can attest to that, but I can also attest to one thing that makes my Linux desktop easier to use: AppImages.
Linux Software Formats Are a Mess
As any educated Linux user knows, installing an application on Debian-based distributions often means finding it in the DEB file format, but RPM on Fedora and other RedHat distros, all while Arch distros rely simply on something called tarballs. On nearly any distro, you can use the Snap container format, unless you're using Linux Mint 20 or later, then you'll need to disable a built-in Snap blocker. You can always use Flatpaks too, but you may need to install Flatpak support first.
Tired yet? Same. It gets worse when you realize many popular apps aren't available in every format, so in practice you almost inevitably end up using a mix. You could argue that diversity is a strength of the Linux ecosystem, and that from the open marketplace of formats better ones will inevitably emerge. Maybe that's true, but I'm no software activist, just a guy trying to get to Spotify on his homebrewed desktop.