Ever since package managers added automatic dependency resolution, installing software in Linux has been easy. The greatest difficulties arose from attempts to use different package formats, such as Debian's Alien. These attempts were never fully successful and were widely ignored. However, with the popularity of universal formats such as AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, and web applications, package management has become more complex, with each format using its own commands for administration. Formerly known as fpakman, bauh [1] is designed to simplify package management by using a single interface for all formats. In addition, bauh is one of the easiest interfaces available for package management either on the desktop or at the command line, despite the fact that some of the interface's details need to be improved.

Currently at release 0.10.7, bauh has far to go before general release. As I write, it supports Arch, AppImage, Snap, Flatpak, and native web applications, covering the most popular formats, but likely others will be added as development continues. Also, for some reason, the top half of package release numbers are obscured in bauh's tables, but other columns are perfectly legible (Figure 1). In addition, a few of the buttons on the right side of the main window seem redundant (possibly to accommodate varying user preferences) while, in an effort to avoid jargon, the functions of some fields are obscure. Fortunately, though, such problems do not stop bauh from being already functional. Package installation and removal are already implemented. In addition, bauh can also use Timeshift for backup before making changes and can be installed in the system tray. Bauh already supports custom themes. Written in Qt, bauh supports all these features with a responsiveness that makes it usable even in the early release stage.

Installing and Configuring bauh

You can install bauh for an individual account or for the entire system. It has yet to be included in the repositories of most distributions. However, bauh's GitHub page [2] includes detailed installation instructions for Arch Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu directly, and for Python 3's pip installer. Judging by the extra actions listed on the project page for each distribution, the Arch version appears to be the most advanced. But considering the dozen required and the dozen optional dependencies, the easiest way to install bauh is with AppImage, although you may need to uninstall AppImageLauncher first.

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