I installed pamac as I am a gui guy I suppose, even though I enjoy terminal use also. I guess I like the option of using both depending on my mood at the time. I vote for having it preinstalled in EOS in the future and I also have to hope for integrated Snap & AUR in it as well.
Another option for Snap support is to just install snapd. That’s what I did to get Spotify (because the AUR package wasn’t working for some reason … can’t remember the specifics now).
Snaps can be confined using AppArmor which is now enabled in the default kernel. Consult relevant wiki pages to find steps for enabling AppArmor in your system.
To keep some things in perspective:
when doing things in a non-Arch way (on a rolling distro), I think it is also like asking for trouble.
Currently (AFAIK) Arch devs do not support
snaps
AUR
any other package manager than pacman
EndeavourOS has chosen yay to support installing software from the AUR.
And as EndeavourOS team is not developing yay, we simply count on the yay developer(s) to do a great job (as they have already done so far).
Of course the above does not mean that the software external from Arch or EndeavourOS devs is bad. On the contrary, there are lots of great software available out there.
But the point is: to use “external” software is solely the risk of the user.
If you have trouble with “external” software, you cannot rely on help from Arch.
Also, the EndeavourOS team does not have sufficient resources to help with them (unless some devs have lots of knowledge about the particular software).
Then the only help available is to search the internet, or ask here if somebody happens to know how to fix a particular issue.
Maybe AppArmor gets installed as a dependency and I don’t see it. It’s not ideal, but it works, seemingly consistently, and without manual intervention, which is what I’m after.
As for the Spotify problem, it could have been the GPG key problem. I can’t remember.
When it works. In my experience, it comes and goes. Either the GPG key issue, or the URL that points to the archive is out of date. In either case, it requires manual intervention, which I prefer not to provide. I like automation, and the key to automation is that it works reliably, over and over and over.
As another path to help capture the user who is new to EndeavourOS/Arch-like distros, how about considering another method to respect the original vision but help the newbies out a little more. What about doing a tutorial that is linked from the welcome screen on how to install PAMAC-AUR using yay, with a fair amount of hand holding. This way you respect the original vision of not pre-installing PAMAC-AUR, you introduce the newbie to the command line in a relatively easy and safe way, and you enable him to play around with PAMAC for those that really aren’t comfortable jumping into pacman on their first day in an ARch based distro. The tutorial could contain a little of the philosophy on why one should strive to use pacman, yet still allow a little helping hand and easy ramp-up to those that are used to Apt, rpm, etc and are intimidated by making the leap to Arch.
Of course, if the community is only interested in attracting hard core Arch users who are just looking to simplify or speed up the install process, the current setup is fine. But if you want to be a little more attractive to those with the desire to go Arch but are limited in time to learn it or confidence to take on Arch with its somewhat prickly reputation, making software installs and updates a little easier might be very helpful.
Adding PAMAC-AUR or a tutorial to install it is just a slight adjustment of the vision, similar to adding yay or reflector; it’s just system tool that helps you run and maintain the OS, not full retard bloatware. On the other hand, dumping a bunch of pre-installed office apps, or a video editor or a bunch of games in would be a complete destruction of the vision. Although a few people suggest that, the community doesn’t seem to have moved to that direction and I agree it shouldn’t.
For those who install EndeavourOS Gnome you will get Gnome Software, EndeavourOS KDE you will get Discover. Gnome Software and Discover are GUI package managers without the AUR, neither requires password for installing-unistalling software or updates, how Arch like is that ?
I always have pamac installed on my system. I am very comfortable with pacman and yay, but occassionaly I need to find something obscure, and pamac is usually easier. I do like the EOS welcome center with both the “update mirrors” and “update system” links. In fact, I like it so much that I have it on my desktop.
I also install gnome-packagekit (although I don’t use it much). I am a bit fan of xfce and have it heavily themed on my system.
