Is AppImage version good for daily work?

MusE is a DAW for Linux with both MIDI and Audio editing. https://muse-sequencer.github.io

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digitsun
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Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by digitsun »

This post is for to know the experience of AppImages users. I have some question about it.

- What about latency?
- Is more buggy/unstable that distro package version? (freezes or crashes)
- Is possible load many tracks (MIDI and Audio)?

I'm using Debian 11 and the AppImage option is always welcome. Now I'm trying MusE and I like it, but I will appreciate that you tell us your experiences.
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GMaq
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

Many times... but not always bundled software (Appimage, Flatpak, Ardour/Mixbus bundles etc..) works better because the developers have 'version control' of the various libraries that support and run the software and those supporting libraries are retained at an optimal version and stay that way until you update the bundle itself. In the case of Ardour bundles for instance there are some patched versions of the supporting GTK libs that are not patched the same if you install from your Distro repository. This does not mean Ardour doesn't work from repository packages but the minor differences between system libs and bundle libs add variables that could be the difference between things working well or things being unstable.

I have switched a few complicated applications that are hard to find in Repos or to build (Avidemux, Cinelerra-GG for an example) over to AppImage and I'm very pleased. That said Flatpak seems to be more cumbersome to install and they infiltrate the system libs unlike AppImages which are nice tidy self-contained binaries.

For something like MusE which I am quite interested in but not necessarily enough to compile every new version I think making AppImages available is a genius move to build it's popularity and guarantee it's performance across Distros.

My opinion, for what it's worth..
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by Largos »

I have used both the AppImage and also installed it from source using the instructions on kubuntu 20.04. Both methods work very well for me and I had no performance problems. The AppImage is very quick to download and try, so you don't really need to take anyone's word for it.

I'd recommend getting the latest pre-release AppImage as some nice improvements were made since April.
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by spamatica »

Unfortunately I have used the AppImage way too little to give any meaningful feedback, more than has already been commented.

One thing I think I can add is that there should be no difference in latency as the AppImage will interface with the systems Jack configuration and jack is what mostly affects latency.

Another thing that will be more evident is that there seems to be some systems that have trouble running the AppImage, there was recently a bug report about some (I'm guessing recent) distro that produced a link error when starting MusE.
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by digitsun »

Thank you for your opinions.

I'm working this days with various appimages audio software I am really amazed. In general terms MusE appimage is stable and I don't have a bad experience in spite some crashes related to specific plugins. I appreciate the decision of MusE developers for choose appimage.

AppImage is really simple compared to flatpak and snap. I look in the free audio software that many developers choose appimage to distribute their work: Qtractor, Qjackct (almost all Rui's software is in AppImage), LMMS, Giada, etc.

I hope that AppImage becomes a pseudo standard for the distribution of free audio software.

Peace
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

digitsun wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:11 pm [...]
AppImage is really simple compared to flatpak and snap. I look in the free audio software that many developers choose appimage to distribute their work: Qtractor, Qjackct (almost all Rui's software is in AppImage), LMMS, Giada, etc.
Is there an appimage for Qtractor?
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

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Tim E. Real
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by Tim E. Real »

Just a comment: I've been thinking, it would be cool if we could tell our AppImage builder
to reliably make a Windows binary using MSys or MingW so that users (like me!) would
not have to fool around with that stuff trying to build it. Our AppImage builder would do all the hard work!
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by sunrat »

digitsun wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:11 pmI hope that AppImage becomes a pseudo standard for the distribution of free audio software.
I seriously hope not. Have you compared the size of appimage, flatpak, or snaps with that of native applications? Monstrous!
One of the beauties of Linux is its framework of shared libraries which can significantly reduce size and overhead. These new containerised applications are another bad implementation of Windows thinking.
And IIRC Rui said once to treat the Qtractor appimage as a demo version but to set up the repo if it works for you. I have Rui's repo working nicely here and upgrades are always offered immediately he uploads them.
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by digitsun »

sunrat wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:54 am
digitsun wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:11 pmI hope that AppImage becomes a pseudo standard for the distribution of free audio software.
I seriously hope not. Have you compared the size of appimage, flatpak, or snaps with that of native applications? Monstrous!
One of the beauties of Linux is its framework of shared libraries which can significantly reduce size and overhead. These new containerised applications are another bad implementation of Windows thinking.
And IIRC Rui said once to treat the Qtractor appimage as a demo version but to set up the repo if it works for you. I have Rui's repo working nicely here and upgrades are always offered immediately he uploads them.
I agree with your opinions for that reason I used the term "pseudo". I prefer the official repositories versions but if the developers choose an alternative way to distribute their apps I believe that AppImage is the most simple way.
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by sunrat »

digitsun wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 2:50 amI agree with your opinions for that reason I used the term "pseudo". I prefer the official repositories versions but if the developers choose an alternative way to distribute their apps I believe that AppImage is the most simple way.
I agree with that. At least Appimage doesn't require a GB of runtime which basically is a mini operating system inside the existing OS like flatpak and snaps do.
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

GMaq wrote: Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:22 pm @Linuxmusician01

https://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtract ... 4.AppImage
Wow! Starts up super fast. This is the best way to test a new release of software. If it isn't what you hoped for or if it has a bug: no problem. If you install via your package manager there's (almost) no way to roll back. Thanks for the link. :)
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by sunrat »

Linuxmusician01 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:03 am
GMaq wrote: Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:22 pm @Linuxmusician01

https://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtract ... 4.AppImage
Wow! Starts up super fast. This is the best way to test a new release of software. If it isn't what you hoped for or if it has a bug: no problem. If you install via your package manager there's (almost) no way to roll back. Thanks for the link. :)
To which package manager are you referring?

Code: Select all

apt purge <package>
works in Debian based systems.
Qtractor from rncbc repo starts on my system before I can count up to 1. :mrgreen:
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Re: Is AppImage version good for daily work?

Post by Linuxmusician01 »

sunrat wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 11:26 am
Linuxmusician01 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:03 am
GMaq wrote: Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:22 pm @Linuxmusician01

https://download.sf.net/qtractor/qtract ... 4.AppImage
Wow! Starts up super fast. This is the best way to test a new release of software. If it isn't what you hoped for or if it has a bug: no problem. If you install via your package manager there's (almost) no way to roll back. Thanks for the link. :)
To which package manager are you referring?

Code: Select all

apt purge <package>
works in Debian based systems.
Qtractor from rncbc repo starts on my system before I can count up to 1. :mrgreen:
I'm on Ubuntu. If I install something with Synaptic I often cannot go back to a certain old version of a package.
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