Anyone who has ever used a Linux distribution knows about software installation. While most Linuxers would argue that there’s nothing wrong with the current state of software installers on Linux, an argument could be made the software installation on Linux is, in a word, broken. Between Red Hat Packages (RPMs), Debian packages (.deb), Gentoo’s portage, Slackware packages (.tgz), and other installations methods, is software installation on Linux really as broken as it seems?

Some look at Linux’s complete lack of unified packaging system as a huge disadvantage. Indeed, part of the appeal of both Windows and OS X are their unified installation systems; on Windows, most applications come with a .exe or .msi installer, and most programs install in Program Files. On OS X, most non-UNIX applications get installed in /Applications, and most applications are distributed using Apple’s now-standard Disk Image format (.dmg).

Linux, however, has no such unified structure. If you use Fedora Core, you’ll be using .rpm packages. Move to Debian or Ubuntu, and you’ll move to .debs. Source-based distros have their own individual installation methods, and to be blunt, this scares new users. While users of each individual distro will argue that there’s no need for a unified packaging system, the fact remains that, unless you’re building the application from source, there’s no way to install the same package across uncommon systems. And while each distribution might take care of some of the packages you might need, there’s always going to be that one little application that you can’t find in your local repository. The time has come for Linux to finally take this one noticeable flaw in an otherwise impressive presentation and fix it. Linux is still Linux, no matter what distro you use, and it’s time to find some sort of common ground that works for everyone.