Snaps and Linux distribution

[Raylin]

So, Snaps have hit the scene. For those who dunno what I'm talking about, see this. tl;dr: Snaps are universal distributions of Linux applications. With that said, can we finally explore the possibilities of LOVE - Linux distribution? Love to hear your thoughts on this.

[Inny]

I volunteer to be the curmudgeon in this thread! I still highly recommend that everybody should release their game as a .love file, in addition to the other release formats they'll be putting out.

That said, yeah I can see this being useful. I think flatpak is the more interesting system, but if snaps become the standard, then yeah, go for it.

But I still want the .love file.

[rdlaitila]

I feel we have more potential with http://appimage.org/ instead of Ubuntu snaps.

Some points in no particular order:

• Ubuntu snaps require the snapd runtime installed. Meaning you cannot run a snap package without your distribution specifically supporting it. It may take time before any of the major distro's support snaps and certainly will not support older systems that are behind the curve of ubuntu/debian (16.04)
• App Images will run anywhere the FUSE kernel module is installed by default, which most mainstreams support today. You compile App Images based on the oldest distro you wish to support meaning you can support distros many years into the past.

I am really hopeful for Ubuntu Snap packages but not designing them to accommodate older linux systems is a real short sight. Windows/Macosx has solved this issue many many years ago and its amazing the Linux community is only now coming to this realization that in order to deliver a proper app ecosystem (example: games) the developer must be able to ship dependencies with the application to ensure proper user experience.

EDIT: for those about to ask, distributing a .love IS NOT the proper way to distribute your awesome game to linux users who JUST WANT TO PLAY YOUR GAME. Even in Ubuntu 16.04, the latest love version from apt is 0.9.1 so giving me a .love built in love 0.10.1 means I cannot play your game. Seriously who the hell has the time (as a developer) to accommodate linux when I have no way reasonably guarantee my game will run on your system? Just wait, the linux scene is about to get shaken up!!

[zorg]

... I still highly recommend that everybody should release their game as a .love file, in addition to the other release formats they'll be putting out.

Most of us here are devs, and we ought to have the latest löve on our systems; for us, not having a .love file takes time to get to the source.
Also, that's a nice word for it; distribute the source also.

[Karai17]

Flatpak was just released alongside Fedora 24 and I believe it to be better implementation of the idea of a pack-once application for Linux. Not to mention that it has a higher chance of general uptake than anything Canonical does.

[meowman9000]

One thing I dislike with Love is downloading games based on old libraries of Love, they never work.

So I for one support this.

[Karai17]

This won't solve that problem

[Inny]

The general consensus that the love developers won't preserve backwards compatibility came late enough that way its packaged is incorrect. The windows installer is easy enough, I've already taken to installing all of the versions back to 0.8 separate of each other. The .deb or PPA is difficult and might not be doable seeing as how the 3rdparty dependencies (SDL et al) aren't under their control.

So, putting out a flatpak runtime for each version would basically be the same as how we're (I'm) keeping it on windows. (again, depending on what becomes the standard, seeing as how snap is strong contender as well).

[Karai17]

Love's distribution method is a double edged sword. The usual method to producing a game would include a build step, but love recommends releasing project files as final builds (.love) that make no distinction between versions of love. The overall solution here would be a flatpak that contain love and the game files, similar to how people make windows builds