This is me without all the swearing, lol. I am not a code person but I am into FOSS for ethical and privacy reasons and some github pages can be truly frustrating especially if it’s an app that’s description is exactly what you’re looking for yet it’s out of reach.
it’s just as much my fault for needing weird niche programs and not just learning, but christ i swear every time i’ve done it the steps have been completely different hahahah
Once big reason it’s building from source is to accommodate as many installation scenarios as possible. It’s different for each because everyone builds things differently but they all should be able to run from source on anything ideally. (This is a very boiled down explanation)
If the project is actively maintained, you can always ask for an installer to be provided. Often developers don’t put in the effort if they don’t think anyone would need it
I always try to build installer scripts at a minimum, usually with automatic dependency resolvers baked in to try and make it as easy as possible. The downside of doing things this way is that I spend about 15-30% more time on my releases vs writing pure features/bugfixes/security, and sometimes static obstacles can be brittle (they break between different systems or updates). I choose to do that because my apps are all intended to be end-user facing and ND-primary focus so it makes sense for me to put that effort in.
What’s annoying is when the build is not just “git pull then run python main.py”
And it’s like “compile this using this special library no one else uses called Blueberries, then wrong it through Rust v4.8279 (no other version works), then it will output a blob of text to copy the API key from that you put in this other special compiler, and if you mess up any of these steps it is all permanently irreversible. Also the person making the code forgot like 3 random steps in there because it’s second nature, duuuh.”
Also Blueberries has been discontinued, but don’t worry, it’s forked on this other super obscure repo and you need to configure your package manager to accept that as a source.
99% of the time you need to install pip packages and if you do this without venv/uv/conda you’re sort of fucking up your python install for other repos you’re running from source
This is why I gave up and started using docker. I don’t have time to fight with this shit anymore. I resisted for a long time and for the life of my I cannot remember why because it’s been great lol.
if by “half the time” you mean “every single time on every single github repo,” then you probably shouldn’t be fucking around trying to compile code. this is a skill check.
I don’t WANT TO COMPILE CODE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR APP OH MY GOD
To be clear, I myself am perfectly capable of getting software working; I’ve debugged some pretty weird stuff to get apps to install, including nix-ld + systemd library linking dependency shenanigans on NixOS.
The point is that github is a code repository, not a software distribution service, and it shows: The options to view, modify, and request changes to the code are front and center, while the option to download the product of said code (or other related artifacts) is hidden to the point where it is annoyingly difficult to find it in comparison. It’s a tiny section hidden underneath the social metrics and like the privacy policy and coding language breakdown iirc, which is NOT discoverable at all. I’ll also note that releases are not always found in the sidebar-- that section is toggleable, and some projects do not use the official releases feature to release their software.
On phones it’s at the bottom iirc, together with other info from the sidebar. Perhaps that’s what they was remembering, but of course on one platform the link stays in the same place (after they finished the redesigns some years ago, anyway).
This is me without all the swearing, lol. I am not a code person but I am into FOSS for ethical and privacy reasons and some github pages can be truly frustrating especially if it’s an app that’s description is exactly what you’re looking for yet it’s out of reach.
“INSTALL: build from source” 😬
it’s just as much my fault for needing weird niche programs and not just learning, but christ i swear every time i’ve done it the steps have been completely different hahahah
Once big reason it’s building from source is to accommodate as many installation scenarios as possible. It’s different for each because everyone builds things differently but they all should be able to run from source on anything ideally. (This is a very boiled down explanation)
If the project is actively maintained, you can always ask for an installer to be provided. Often developers don’t put in the effort if they don’t think anyone would need it
I always try to build installer scripts at a minimum, usually with automatic dependency resolvers baked in to try and make it as easy as possible. The downside of doing things this way is that I spend about 15-30% more time on my releases vs writing pure features/bugfixes/security, and sometimes static obstacles can be brittle (they break between different systems or updates). I choose to do that because my apps are all intended to be end-user facing and ND-primary focus so it makes sense for me to put that effort in.
I just made my own shitty NSIS script generator for windows and an easily adaptable script for GNU/Linux systems.
The Releases page! Check the releases 😭
If it’s not there and there are build instructions instead…be afraid. Be very afraid.
What’s annoying is when the build is not just “git pull then run python main.py”
And it’s like “compile this using this special library no one else uses called Blueberries, then wrong it through Rust v4.8279 (no other version works), then it will output a blob of text to copy the API key from that you put in this other special compiler, and if you mess up any of these steps it is all permanently irreversible. Also the person making the code forgot like 3 random steps in there because it’s second nature, duuuh.”
Also Blueberries has been discontinued, but don’t worry, it’s forked on this other super obscure repo and you need to configure your package manager to accept that as a source.
99% of the time you need to install pip packages and if you do this without venv/uv/conda you’re sort of fucking up your python install for other repos you’re running from source
This is why I gave up and started using docker. I don’t have time to fight with this shit anymore. I resisted for a long time and for the life of my I cannot remember why because it’s been great lol.
Ubuntu doesn’t even let you not use a venv without extra effort these days. I kind of appreciate it getting me into better habbits
My pet peeve is the releases page always being so hidden. For some reason half the time it’s in the sidebar??
What do you mean “half of the time”.
It’s toggleable and not every project uses the feature for their releases
if by “half the time” you mean “every single time on every single github repo,” then you probably shouldn’t be fucking around trying to compile code. this is a skill check.
I don’t WANT TO COMPILE CODE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR APP OH MY GOD
To be clear, I myself am perfectly capable of getting software working; I’ve debugged some pretty weird stuff to get apps to install, including nix-ld + systemd library linking dependency shenanigans on NixOS.
The point is that github is a code repository, not a software distribution service, and it shows: The options to view, modify, and request changes to the code are front and center, while the option to download the product of said code (or other related artifacts) is hidden to the point where it is annoyingly difficult to find it in comparison. It’s a tiny section hidden underneath the social metrics and like the privacy policy and coding language breakdown iirc, which is NOT discoverable at all. I’ll also note that releases are not always found in the sidebar-- that section is toggleable, and some projects do not use the official releases feature to release their software.
On phones it’s at the bottom iirc, together with other info from the sidebar. Perhaps that’s what they was remembering, but of course on one platform the link stays in the same place (after they finished the redesigns some years ago, anyway).
I’m OPs defense, there isn’t always one. I’ve run into some that say you gotta compile it yourself, use docker, or whatever.
Bro just:
Trust me bro
Should probably run it with sudo to avoid those annoying permissions errors.
Don‘t forget to disable secure boot! You know, just to be friendly to the new software.
I actuallty recoiled in fear seeing “build instructions.” Didn’t realize the amount of PTSD inflicted upon me via those github pages. 😭
Hey at least they give you instructions, if they work I can work with it, especially if they’re nice and detailed.
The ones I abandon have just the source, no instructions, nothing. Thankfully it’s not terribly common.
Tbh, even if you have to build there’s GitHub Actions, so I don’t know what could stop anyone.