Stories like this play in the back of my head when I hear hams complain about their preferred program not running inside Linux.
That a distribution has an LTS marking does not mean that the user is expected to run the original, non-updated release for the length of the vendor's support.
I am familiar with Ubuntu LTS which they release every two years, and has semi-annual updates (20.04 LTS, then 20.04.1, 20.04.2, and 20.04.3) before and after the next LTS release is delivered (22.04 LTS) and the cycle continues (See: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases ) - during an LTS release lifetime (5 years) the user is expected to perform regular updates to keep the release current in some meaningful way. LTS releases are intended to appeal to the "it works, leave it alone" type of users, which is not represented by someone that wants to run the latest end-user software on say a 4 year-old distribution.
Just because the folks that put together your Linux distribution decided to provide *security* updates for 5 years doesn't obligate independent software developers to support that 5 year-old distribution and whatever development libraries/tools you have on your system that may date back to the distributions release date years ago.
I've never attempted to run Chirp on Linux, though I do use Linux rather extensively in my personal use (about half my computers run it), I simply prefer to run my hobby-related software on Windows.
And from a previous post in this thread - is there anyone out in the real world paying a "per Kb download fee" to download software? And you need not uninstall your previous installation of Chirp to install the latest release, that is one of the very first things mentioned in the installation directions - the instructions merely indicate to need to not have Chirp running when upgrading.
Upgrading: You do NOT need to uninstall an existing version of CHIRP before installing a newer one. Just install the new one and it will replace the existing copy! However, be sure to quit CHIRP before installing the new version!
That is on the page where you click to choose Chirp-Next to download (see: https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Download ).
And this just rubbed me the wrong way:
Yes, Chirp is largely free to us the users, other than the cost of time and effort to install and learn. For that we are all grateful indeed. But wasting even "free" time does not go down well with many of us.
Two points "largely free"? What? It is "free" full stop, no if, no buts - the time spent learning a software package isn't a cost, it's an investment.
Second, its interesting that your "free time" is so valuable that you took the time to complain about the ONLY solution, free or commercial, available to program your radios on a Linux system (no OEM I'm aware of supplies radio programming software that runs on any Linux distribution), because you struggled in your very particular environment, and then flexed about your career spent supporting end-users to somehow back up your view of how things should be. There were some useful nuggets in your post, but your complaints got in the way of the good ideas and suggestions you offered.
I'm not part of the Chirp team, but I do feel I am part of the Chirp end-user community, and in that capacity I want to express my unqualified appreciation for all the hard work they choose to do, to provide us with a very useful tool like Chirp.
Take care,
Ken, N2VIP
On Jun 2, 2024, at 09:58, Dan Smith via Users users@lists.chirpmyradio.com wrote: So, please, again, show some respect for those of us spending their Sunday mornings trying hard to cater to a fraction of the 2% of users that run older distros by not claiming a lack of "appreciation." It would be *easier* to just say chirp "doesn't work on linux", drop the install instructions (which have to shift over time because of changes in the distros and python itself) and remove all the linux-specific bits in the code which require maintenance.
You know what hasn't changed in a long time? The installation instructions for macOS and Windows :)