I just came to realize: I once loved Linux for one (of many) thing: the fact that everything was installed using a centralized package manager. Compared to Windows with it's many dirty .exe it seemed like paradise when I discovered Linux back in 2009.

And today I realized quite the opposite: I now use many different package managers to install softwares I use daily. Some examples:

• I use Glances, installed with PIP
• I use Rubocop, installed with Gem
• I use TLDR, installed with NPM
• I just started to use exa and bat (thanks to this awesome post), both installed with Cargo

Not only many packages I use are installed via an external package managers, but these package managers are themselves not even installed via my distribution's packages manager! For example, Rubocop is installed via Gem... installed via RVM... installed via a script. Same for NPM (installed via NVM) and Cargo (installed via a script). The only package manager installed with my distribution's package manager is PIP.

Another thing I noticed: many "modern" softwares does not even provide real Linux packages (deb or yum for example) anymore. Some of them provide only an AppImage (e.g. BitWarden) or simply a .tar.gz (e.g. Postman).

I'm not especially bothered by this, except maybe for the fact that I have to manage multiple "software lists" (if I want to list them all before a reinstall for example) and that I can't just update all my packages in one command. Also it feels like all the softwares I use are scattered all over the place... good thing I'm not OCD 😀

What are your thoughts on this? Do you use many package managers? Why or why not? If you are, do you see it as a good or bad thing?