A few years ago we were able to upgrade everything (OS and Apps) using a single command. I remember this was something we boasted about when talking to Windows and Mac fans. It was such an amazing feature. Something that users of proprietary systems hadn't even heard about. We had this on desktops before things like Apple's App Store and Play Store were a thing.
We can no longer do that thanks to Flatpaks and Snaps as well as AppImages.
Recently i upgraded my Fedora system. I few days later i found out i was runnig some older apps since they were Flatpaks (i had completely forgotten how I installed bitwarden for instance.)
Do you miss the old system too?
Is it possible to bring back that experience? A unified, reliable CLI solution to make sure EVERYTHING is up to date?
Exactly. I dont have flatpak or snap integration installed so packages are packages. I think it was Ubuntu being delivered with snap as part of the OS. As well as CLI ads.
You have to check your distros info, but from popular Linux podcasts they were claiming certain distros used the apt get but once the package manager saw what you want it would throw in a snap or flatpak of the same. Not all distros. I think Ubuntu was one.
Even on Fedora the average user is presented with many flatpak results when they use the GUI software manager. Not everyone is technically adept enough to check the origin of the app. So it's kind of being forced on users.
Yes, that's why I stopped using it years ago (among other reasons).
Users are not out of options, they don't need to check the origin of the apps themselves, it's enough to ask other users what distros don't do the things they don't like and use those.
You can use bauh. it is a graphical app manager which can Install and update appimage, deb, flatpak, snap and web apps.
https://github.com/vinifmor/bauh