That sounds like you could have a situation where the developer wants me to run the app, and I want to run the app, but nobody at the distro I use has packaged up the app, so we're blocked.

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embedding-shape 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> but nobody at the distro I use has packaged up the app

But you're "at the distro", and you want to use it, so you package it :) You might want to be nice to others too, so you make that public. Eventually, the community might end up relying on it, and the package gets an official maintainer from the distribution itself.

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seba_dos1 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Then you can be the one who'll package it for your distro.

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AndrewDucker 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sorry, I don't have those skills, or any spare time.

And if you want a system whereby software only gets made available if distro-providers care enough, then that's fine. But you're putting a filter between the software producer and non-technical users, and you should be aware that this is a choice you're making.

	▲	seba_dos1 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It has worked for decades and many thousands of packages just fine. If nobody cares enough to make the application available, perhaps it just shouldn't be there.

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_sinelaw_ 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You still need the distro maintainers to cooperate. And the packaging itself can be highly involved (as in the case of rust dependencies on Debian)

	▲	seba_dos1 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Of course you do, that's where the value comes from after all.