Over here in Windows land I can’t fathom why you need something like Flatpak just so users can reliably launch and run a program. I mean trust me I understand that Linux is so broken it needs something like flatpak. But imagine saying you’re disappointed the Windows executable format isn’t evolving! Running an exe shouldn’t require decades of maintenance. It shouldn’t be that complicated. It doesn’t have to be.

> Running an exe shouldn’t require decades of maintenance. It shouldn’t be that complicated. It doesn’t have to be.

What do you think is all that stuff in C:\Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86), c:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, C:\Windows\SysWOW64, %USERPROFILES%\%APPDATA%\Local and %USERPROFILE%\%APPDATA%\LocalLow or the seven versions of the C/C++ VS Redistributable you have installed?

EDIT: typos

Thing is, .exe on windows is broken on so many levels. You don't have sandboxing, apps don't always follow standards as to where to store their data, there's no dependency management but if you don't have the correct version of e.g. java installed your app won't work. Etc.

> Running an exe shouldn’t require decades of maintenance.

Running a statically linked elf doesn't. Meanwhile modern Windows does its best to corral users into the Microsoft Store. The primary difference is a single centralized ecosystem versus true user freedom and the anarchy that results in.

Honestly, you have a point. At one point there was a proposal for a "Linux Standard Base", but none of the distros really cared (they had their special sauce), so it withered. If Linux app devs could target "LSB-2020" or something, it could be similar to Windows devs targeting a particular Windows version. Flatpak is basically a work-around to the distributions.

(Note that Windows also does vitalization for compatibility reasons.)

On another level, maybe it's just "in the name". Windows lets you run your GUI windowing programs, and that all keeps working. GNU/Linux lets you run 1990 base industry standard API programs, all that keeps working, but for anything else, all bets are off.

> Running an exe shouldn’t require decades of maintenance.

That's why windows is so full of malware and viruses.

> But imagine saying you’re disappointed the Windows executable format isn’t evolving!

I actually am disappointed about pretty much that. There is still no good permissions/sandboxing mechanism for PC operating systems like what's on smartphones. (to be clear I'm not calling for smartphone-like freedom restrictions on PCs, just more control over what applications can do)

That's one of the issues Flatpak tried to resolve on Linux. AFAIK Windows Store is an idea pretty similar to Flatpak (permissions, solving distribution problems...) but also no one uses it. So it's not like Microsoft doesn't want to evolve exe either.