Sorry if this isn’t the right place to ask this, I couldn’t find a linux-no-stupid-questions community lol.
I’m migrating again to linux, and working on Linux Mint for now to avoid a huge change due to my upcoming program for school soon where I won’t have extra time to fiddle with things. So I’m trying to get everything set up, and download my most used applications, but I’m trying to figure out - should I be downloading the official software if it’s available, or is it better to find a FOSS alternative instead? I plan to go with the apps that come with it like the libre office instead of Microsoft, obviously, but I was looking at Discord and there is what appears to be an official looking option in the software manager app, and below it a FOSS WebCord option. Or, if this one isn’t the official, I could always go to the discord site and get it from them if they have it available.
Does it matter which option I go with? Is it better to go with official software if possible? Or is it better to go with FOSS for more control/privacy?
The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.
First, I don’t like calling proprietary software “official”. Proprietary software is just software with closed source code. What makes something official is someone deciding “OK, this is what we are going to use” or that it definitely came from a particular source. Getting Docker directly from Docker repositories rather from a distributions repository for example.
My general take is if FOSS can do the job, I use FOSS. If FOSS can’t do the job I need, then I will go with the best proprietary solution to my problem. If I go with FOSS, I tend to prefer using the repository of the project in question rather than my distributions repository. The projects repository tends to be more up to date and there are fewer opportunities for ba actors to play with the code. Downside is that these repositories may introduce changes that may bork your OS when/if you upgrade to a newer major version. FlatPacks and AppImages help to mitigate this.
Hope that helps.
As with everything - it depends. Sometimes the FOSS versions are not very good, sometimes they are better than the official. Sometimes they are better for privacy, sometimes they make no real difference at all, sometimes the web version is better. Sometimes there is no FOSS version, sometimes the official one does not support Linux.
You are going to need to go on a case by case bases and decide each time.
It’s a matter of ideology.
This being said I think for you installing “official” apps via flatpak might be the best compromise. You gets apps that don’t need tinkering with and “just work” while those apps are isolated from the rest of your system via flatpak isolation.
If you are going into a period low fiddle time this might be your best bet ^
That makes sense. I still have windows installed as a backup but I’d really like to get through the program with Linux only. I’ve been going through the software manager first and then on to the official apps from their site if there was no options