&gt; I would argue for the opposite: One problem with linux is that you can&#x27;t run untrusted software without it getting the same access as the user. That&#x27;s exactly what the appification is.
&gt; I see package managers as a source of some problems of linux: Package maintainers are a unneeded middleman between the writers of the software and you, package managers interact with the whole system, scattering files around the whole filesystem and running scripts as root when installing&#x2F;uninstalling packages.<p>High-standards imposed by distros (see for example: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.debian.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;debian-policy&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.debian.org&#x2F;doc&#x2F;debian-policy&#x2F;</a>) and tedious work of packagers has been a very important part of the free software ecosystem, and kept GNU&#x2F;Linux snoopware-, malware- and virus-free and trustable [1]. They are far from &quot;unneeded middleman&quot;.<p>Here&#x27;s a very recent example of this system at work: Chromium sneaks a binary blob which secretly listens to your microphone and sends data to Google: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lwn.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;648392&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lwn.net&#x2F;Articles&#x2F;648392&#x2F;</a><p>This is just one instance, there has been many many examples of this.<p>There are just so many, let me say, shady, &quot;apps&quot; out there, so I don&#x27;t install anything from Google Play Store on my smartphone. On my desktop&#x2F;laptop however, I feel safe installing whatever I need from the official repositories.
I personally don&#x27;t want to use a distro to which &quot;app&quot; developers from Android ecosystem can freely push their programs (and updates to them).<p>&gt; Applications being files&#x2F;folders that can be installed&#x2F;uninstalled with cp&#x2F;rm seems way more unixy to me.<p>But that&#x27;s essentially what a package manager does for you, although it takes away your freedom to screw up in the process. In GNU&#x2F;Linux, it essentially 1) protects you from screwing up your system accidentally 2) allows you trust system-wide binaries (assuming that your distro is trustable).<p>App Stores are also package managers, so I&#x27;m not sure what you&#x27;re trying to point out here.<p>====<p>[1] I&#x27;m excluding Ubuntu here. Ubuntu comes with spyware, spies on you by default and monetizes the privacy and trust of its users [2]. I don&#x27;t trust it, I don&#x27;t use it, and I recommend against it.<p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gnu.org&#x2F;philosophy&#x2F;ubuntu-spyware.en.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gnu.org&#x2F;philosophy&#x2F;ubuntu-spyware.en.html</a>