Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What else can they do... They can do what Docker and many other software providers do that are committed to cross OS functionality. They could build packages for those OSes. Example: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using... The install instructions you link to are relying on the OS providers to build/package Podman as part of their OS release process. But that is notoriously out-of-date. You…
> build/package Podman as part of their OS release process. But that is notoriously out-of-date. providing duplicate/additional non official builds for other OS is - undermining the OSes package curation - confusing for the user - cost additional developer time, which for most OSS is fairly limited - for non vendorable system dependencies this additional dev time cost can be way higher in all kinds of surprising ways…
Mostly agree. But something like Podman w/ RedHat behind it is unlikely to be limited in the same way a lot of community OSS projects are.
Unfortunately, I disagree with just about every other point you made but don't think it's worth responding point-by-point. In short, I think a project having dedicated builds for popular OSes is a win-win for just about everyone, excepting that it does take, sometimes a considerable amount of, effort to support those cross OS builds. Additionally, there are now options like Snap/Flatpack/AppImage that can be targets instead of the OS itself, although there is admittedly a tradeoff there as well.
For some projects, say something like ripgrep, just using what is in the OS repo is fine because having the latest and greatest features/bug-fixes is unlikely to matter to most people using the tool.
But, on something like Podman, where there is so many pieces, it's a relatively new technology, and the interaction between Kernel, OS, and user space is so high, being stuck with a non-current OS provided release for a couple years is a non-starter.
> why not use a Linux distribution which works with modern software development cycles?
Because I like my OS to be stable, widely supported, and I also like some of my applications to be evergreen. I find Ubuntu is usually a really good mix that way and I'm going on 15+ years of use. There are other solutions for that that I could use, but I'm mostly happy where I am and don't want to spend the kind of time it would take to adopt a different OS and everything that would follow from that.
That leads _me_ to avoid Podman currently. I can appreciate that you have a different opinion, I just think you are a overplaying your perspective a bit in the comment above.