Re: Unresolvable Package Conflicts Detected. Failed to Prepare Transaction.
Reply #9 –
You make a fair point.
Partially it's an issue of clarity. It should be made clear on the website / wiki / faq that Artix is not suitable for beginners to Linux UNLESS they will be happy with the reduced set of packages (as compared to Arch) available.
So if all you use the computer for is browsing and some word processing it's fine even as a beginner.
However if your use case needs packages which only exist in the Arch repo's and or the AUR you should not be installing Artix as a beginner. Because you'll either have to self build the packages (its own can of worms) or enable the arch repos, and sooner or later you will have breakage which, as a beginner, you will probably struggle to fix on your own. So you'll come on here for help and possibly be told "Third party repo's are not supported".
Which is fine but on the wiki page it does not explain that. It only gives instructions on how to enable them.
I struggle to find anywhere on the pages a new user would naturally flow through where it states "Third party repo's are not supported".
I may be missing it ?
On the FAQ page
"Arch and the AUR can cover every need." But not if you are a beginner. Your system will break at some point.
On the subject of criteria for package inclusion:
I have asked in passing before how it is decided which packages from Arch make it into Artix and which don't.
I didn't get an answer. Which is fine, it wasn't a direct question at the time.
But at that time I brought up the example of Lutris. Very popular if you game on Linux. Yet not in Artix. This baffles me.
pkgstats show lutris
lutris 19.92
Almost one in five Arch users (who have installed pkgstats but I'm accepting it as representative) have chosen to install Lutris but it's missing from Artix.
So going out on limb one in five users who install Artix will either enable the Arch repo's or delete Artix and use something else just for Lutris.
And there are so many popular packages missing from Artix that I suspect the percentage of users who can manage with only the subset of packages available in Artix will be fairly small ?
Just out of curiosity I made a list of all Arch extra repo packages missing from Artix world and the percentage of Arch users with them installed based on pkgstats.
Admittedly some of those listed will be in Galaxy or Omniverse but where they aren't the more that those near the top of the list are included in Artix, the better Artix will be for it imho.
State it clearly on the website and download page and you may have to state it less frequently in the forum
I fully respect your right to take Artix in whatever direction you choose but I don't think Artix is suitable for a lot of beginners and they should be told this before they install.
It might not be a bad idea to have a specific sub-forum similar to AUR Packages (Or just rename that one 'Third party packages' or something)
Where the mods can move any threads dealing with issues caused by third party packages, devs can just ignore the threads in that sub-forum and other users may still be able to offer help recovering from whatever breakage has affected the poster.
And those users who find the correct subforum can ask for help there without the likelihood of being chastised.
TLDR:
- Make it clearer to new users that Arch and the AUR are not supported
- Make it clear that Artix is not suitable for beginners if they wish to use packages from outside Artix
- Include more of the most popular Arch Packages in Artix
- Consider a subforum where users can ask for help with third party packages from other users but not expect it from any devs