Comment by IshKebab
Downloading and installing a `.deb` or `.rpm` is going to be no more secure. They can run arbitrary scripts too.
Downloading and installing a `.deb` or `.rpm` is going to be no more secure. They can run arbitrary scripts too.
Well, distros haven't really put any effort into making it viable as far as I know. They really should! Why isn't there a standard Linux package format that all distros support? Flatpak is fine for user GUI apps but I don't think it would be feasible to e.g. distribute Rust via a Flatpak.
(And when I say fine, I haven't actually used it successfully yet.)
I think distros don't want this though. They all want everyone to use their format, and spend time uploading software into their repo. Which just means that people don't.
Downloading a deb via a package manager is more secure. Downloading a deb, comparing the hash (or at least noting down the hash) would also already be more secure.
But yes, that the run arbitrary scripts is also a known issue, but this is not the main point as most code you download will be run at some point (and ideally this needs sandboxing of applications to fix).