AppCenter from a laymans perspective

Question

I know nothing about Linux.

And I'm really impressed with Elementary. However, as I went to the AppCenter to my surprise I did not find anything useful there.

No vs code, no node js, no skype, no git kraken, no good games (there are many good games for Linux I know from GOG)

The worst thing was: I had to install Eddy and Synaptic Packet Manager manually. After finding out that DEB is a package system and not like a ZIP file.

In other words I was googling for 3 hours before I got it to work.

Why is this? why doesn't the appcenter show as many good apps as there are in the world. and leave out the eehhm less useful things.

Answer 1

I think that the elementaryOS appcenter is pretty much like most appcenters on Linux distros are. They use repositories and depending on what repository is available different things will be found in the appcenter. What you see in the appcenter now is what you would most likely see in any distros appcenter until you add another repository. I do not know if GOG have a repository of their own which can be added in Linux. Perhaps if you would find a Linux distro that is more focused on gaming you would find better games out of the box.

Take a look at https://distrowatch.com/search.php

In most distros that I have tried Synaptic Package Manager is not installed by default. It is almost always something you will have to install afterwards. I suppose that every distro comes with its own package manager (or appcenter) and if that manager wouldn't suite your needs then Synaptic is available as an alternative.

A lot of the charm with Linux is that you can shape it after your needs and I would dare guess that very few users leave a distro untouched. This is why we love our distros - The freedom to tweak, change, add and remove things after our needs and wants.

This is my experience anyway :-D

Answer 2

The appcenter is good for elementary specific apps, their number is now growing quite fast (you also can make one, see https://developer.elementary.io/).

For other apps I would recommend to use flatpak or snap. It is a new way of installing apps on linux. There is an app called Snaptastic in the appcenter for installing snaps. For installing flatpak see https://flatpak.org/setup/elementary%20OS/

It's just the way it works on Linux - when you have freedom, it may be a little more messy sometimes, but it's worth it :D