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  • Nate Graham's avatar
    Show an Arch-specific message if no app backends are available · e5e1173a
    Nate Graham authored
    Arch developers have repeatedly expressed a preference for Arch users to
    use the command line to manage software, rather than Discover. For this
    reason, they deliberately package Discover in such a way that you will
    have to go out of your way to figure out how to install an app backend.
    
    Unfortunately, this means that Discover looks broken if you install it
    with its default set of dependencies, because it won't be able to find
    any apps. Novice Arch users don't understand that this is a deliberate
    packaging choice in Arch, and instead blame Discover.
    
    To alleviate this, we have introduced an error page that has become
    ever mode specific over time about what exactly the problem is. Despite
    this, novice Arch users remain confused about it. And the text we show
    today is not really correct, as it implies that the issue is caused by
    a bug in Arch's packaging. But it is *not* a bug; Arch packagers
    package Discover this way deliberately, because they don't want Arch
    users to use Discover to get apps. They consider this to be an expert
    level feature that you shouldn't use unless you know what you're doing,
    which inherently conflicts with the UX that we want to offer in
    Discover.
    
    Accordingly, for Arch users, let's show an Arch-specific message that
    explains what's going on in clear and precise language, and offers an
    actionable path forward.
    e5e1173a