Hi, I am currently working on project that I’m calling Installies. It is a tool for Linux that makes it easy to find and use bash scripts to install, remove, update, or compile apps. You can add specific scripts for different distros or architectures.
I have been working on this for the past couple of months, and it is nearly ready to be released. Lately I realized that I haven’t asked any other Linux users if they would find it useful, so if you could tell me if you might find it useful, or any advice/feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I want to see it.
I really honestly wish more Linux users would throw open their personal libraries of scripts that made their lives easier. Yes, probably 99% of them are super idiosyncratic to do This One Thing the user needed done or are the same ten or fifteen everyone has discovered for themselves but I bet most of them have a piece of code in them that’s does this thing I didn’t know I could automate or could be a template for this other thing I want to do and didn’t even know where to start or I just want to look at and go ‘wow, you really went all out with that, this is art I want to frame this, holy shit’ even though all it does is like move a file.
To be honest, there is a class of problems that are extremely common, like maintaining installations, deployment scripts, logging, argument parsing. Apparently you tool belongs to this “really common” problems.
There is also a class of people who tend to solve problems by programming, and prefer doing so before doing some sort of exhaustive research for existing solution. Apparently you belong to this class of people.
I love that this class of people is here (hey, I’m part of it!), having this creative mindset is superb for learning and growing, and for keeping it fun (that’s really important! it’s dangerous to go without fun!).
I say, if you really get joy from solving problems this way then definitely keep this. Perks of being in this “class” is that we often grow attached to our projects and watching it not succeed can be painful.
So just remember to not put all the eggs into one basket: it’s good to realize when you’re in a domain where lots of mature solutions exist so success requires (sans impossible luck) being way much better than the existing ones. Because it can mean that getting people to try out your solution can be disproportionately harder than it “should be” given quality of it. You might need to prepare yourself for a long season of being the only user. On the other hand, looking for beta testers or reviewers, can be a different thing.
Just to make clear, I don’t want this to sound discouraging in any way – it’s just personal experience and failure that might be good for others to not repeat.
I think the fact that, eg. on pypi there are tons of logging and argument parsing libraries shows the overlap between these classes of problems. Another thing is that most of these libraries is going to be abandoned. Again, I think that overall it’s a good way – it means that lots of people love coding and are trying – it’s humanity’s way of getting awesome things.
It’s useful for you, End of discussion. who cares about anything else.
if it’s useful to you it might be useful for someone out there, I say go for it
No.
