News Duckstation dev blocks Arch Linux users, threatens to completely remove Linux support

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

I heard that Retroarch had stolen his core a while back too. Can we just value and respect our heroes?

Stolen??

Since when is making a proper, fully legal fork of a (at the time) Free Software program, "stealing"?

 

[RandomHajile]

Stolen??

Since when is making a proper, fully legal fork of a (at the time) Free Software program, "stealing"?

Dunno, it's what I heard in the youtuber emulation community. People said the dev didn't consent to it being included. It's not my business since I didn't make it, I just repeat what I heard.

 

[514lorn]

emulation scene and massive egos - a tale as old as time

 

[KaiserMk7]

Dunno, it's what I heard in the youtuber emulation community. People said the dev didn't consent to it being included. It's not my business since I didn't make it, I just repeat what I heard.

Something something permissive open source license is implicit consent/obviates need for consent.

 

[secreto7]

Something something permissive open source license is implicit consent/obviates need for consent.

Stenzek said that someone didn't respect attribution of code authorship, something that is a must on a free license.

 

[Trillid Tetraoxide]

Stenzek has always been... an unusual person with peculiar reactions to things. But he's talented as hell.

 

[KaiserMk7]

Stenzek said that someone didn't respect attribution of code authorship, something that is a must on a free license.

That would be a legitimate reason to throw hands.

 

[cloudsets]

I always find it interesting how often Squarepusher and Themeister (of libretro/RetroArch) mistreat other emudevs until they snap, and somehow the other emudevs always end up being the only ones to catch any flak.

I suppose when you maintain a frontend based on the API Near designed, you probably have more time to manage PR. Especially when a lot of that PR management is done for you by pulling in the emulator cores created by dozens of other real developers and getting to slap your project's name on top of them.

Likewise, I feel Stenzek's pain with having to maintain compatibility with Wayland and the toxic expectations of Linux users. The harassment and abuse game developers and open-source developers face seem to overlap for emulator developers, and they get the worst of both. Plus, the shift to Wayland has led to a lot of extra work for developers not exclusively or primarily targeting the Linux platform. Wayland single-handedly shifted Linux development from *nix-like development to an extra, unique platform on top of the other Unices, similarly to macOS with Quartz.

I won't go too hard in the defense of Stenzek, but if you really want maintained Linux support, it might be a good idea to brush up on the skills and maintain a port yourself. The backend would still be something Stenzek would maintain, but it takes some load off him while spreading out the power he wields controlling the project, even if there's only a shallow fork.

It'd be a win-win.

 

[JustCallMeConstantin]

Scripts: Remove PKGBUILD · stenzek/duckstation@30df16c

I originally provided this an alternative to the broken AUR packages. However, it seems that Arch users would rather use broken packages and keep complaining to me instead of their packager. I spe...

github.com

There's quite a bit of history here with the developer's frustration with Linux users and open source in general. Between libretro forking Duckstation to create Swanstation, him changing the license (possibly illegally) to a rather restrictive one prevent such behavior, then growing frustrated when users would complain about issues in their unofficial builds -- unofficial because they can't use his now-proprietary build scripts. I'm unclear on whether he's just threatening to remove Linux support, or it's actually happening in the coming days.

- *Linux Mint*: You're likely good to go, especially since you're using the AppImage version. The developer's frustrations are primarily with Arch Linux package maintainers, so Linux Mint users might not be directly impacted.
- *Arch Linux*: Users of Arch Linux might face issues due to the developer's frustration with the distribution's package maintainers. The developer has threatened to remove support due to constant bug reports related to unofficial packages and a lack of cooperation.

 

[trickybus]

"However, it seems that Arch users would rather use broken packages and keep complaining to me instead of their packager."

Newer Arch users have no working knowledge of what the AUR is and how it works. They randomly download something, it works flawlessly, then they develop ridiculous expectations about every other package despite each one being the obligation of a different user with different time constraints and know-how. There's a reason why the AUR comes with a warning attached but users don't heed it.

If this is the reason why the maintainer is cutting support, I don't blame him in the slightest and I say this as someone who does use Arch. There's an etiquette that needs to be followed when troubleshooting program issues; bitching to the app maintainer when you're using an unofficial build of their program isn't it.