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Comment by thenewnewguy | Hacker News Reader

> All feedback is highly appreciated, no matter how brutal.

Some complaints about the linux packaging:

The website mentions a license, but doesn't appear to provide a link to one, and my .deb download didn't come with a license either.

You're redistributing Oracle Java for some reason? Might want to just mark that as a dependency, and I hope you have a license for that.

You have two copies of libEGL.so for some reason.

Sometimes the directory is BugJail and sometimes it's bugjail.

I don't use a distro that takes rpm or deb packages, maybe there could be a .tar.gz download for us?

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Thanks for the feedback. Quick replies:

- The Linux packaging will be re-done from scratch (previous beta had completely re-done packaging for Windows and Mac, re-done Linux packaging coming in next beta) and I'll make sure all these get fixed.

- The license is displayed in the launcher screen (before you click "Enter BugJail"), but i'll make it also available online, good point, thanks.

- Redistributing Oracle JRE as part of BugJail package is done exactly according to their redistribution terms, no problems there.

- The reason for redistributing JRE has more to do with Windows and Mac, where 'marking it as dependency' is not an option. I'll reconsider how to do this when the Linux packaging is rewritten.

- Would AppImage packaging work for you? What distro do you use?

AppImage would be even worse, as it's a fairly new technology and not all that well integrated. I am an ArchLinux user and generally it's easiest if the software comes as a tar.gz with installation instructions and list of dependencies. Those of us using alternative distros, i.e. not fedora, debian or ubuntu are most comfortable with getting a simple archive and adapting it to their distro. Trying to make an installable package for us only leads to frustrations for everyone.

I'm actually half-way migrating from Kubuntu to Arch..

But sure, I'll get .tar.gz done.

And if you'd like to get notified when done, just send your contact info (my email is in the 'contact' page). Thanks for the feedback!

Good to hear, I wish you success.

I understand on Windows/Mac you have to package the JRE, but I'd recommend considering using the distro for that functionality on linux - it's generally frowned upon to re-package stuff in the official repos.

I think an AppImage would generally be worse, I'd rather be able to use my system's JRE and libraries. I'm on Arch, so if you provide an archive of the application we can work with that. If you really want to go above and beyond for Arch users you could make and publish an AUR package.

Thanks, I'll do as you recommend: JRE as dependency and add .tar.gz packaging. And shoot me an email if you'd like notification when done(my email is in the contact page).

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