Exactly. But it’s not just that. It is much much worse than just that. Please allow me to explain.
Issue #1: Reliability
Unity is now forcing us to add a package repository to our system in order to install UnityHub. The problem is a package repository has the power to replace ANY package on the system! If Unity’s repository is badly configured (either by mistake or malice) then it has the power to destroy the entire system. Now, any time I will update my system, I will have to blindly trust that Unity didn’t made any mistake and didn’t get hacked. This is the same reason why Ubuntu’s PPA suck and why Canonical developed Snap to replace them.
When UnityHub was distributed as an AppImage there was no such problem. Installing it couldn’t harm the system.
Issue #2: Easiness
When UnityHub was distributed as an AppImage, all you had to do to install it was downloading it, right click on it and install it. That’s it, no extra step required. And yes, that takes care of the integration with the rest of the system (ie put it in the app menu and such). This is how I installed Unity on Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Kubuntu and Neon. It always worked right out of the box.
Now that UnityHub is distributed as a package I have to open a terminal, become root, edit a system config file (which is different depending on the distribution I’m using), add a new line (which is different depending on the distribution I’m using), and type a bunch of commands (which are different depending on the distribution I’m using). If I make a mistake while doing it, I can screw up my whole system! How is this quality of life?
Issue #3: Other distributions and future versions of supported distributions
I know that Unity only officially support Ubuntu and CentOS and I approve of that decision. But if I want to install it on a non supported distribution that’s my problem. AppImage is a distribution agnostic method to distribute applications, it works the same everywhere. I managed to install and use Unity on a whole bunch on distributions without issue.
Now that UnityHub is distributed via a package repository there is no way to install it on a non officially supported distribution. There is also no telling if this is going to work on future versions of Ubuntu and CentOS. Package are tied to one specific version of one distribution. If Ubuntu or CentOS decided to rename some package or to change the version numbers and UnityHub depends on those package, then it won’t install anymore. Unity devs will have to constantly keep their packages up to date with the changes in their supported distribution. This is extra work for no benefit.
Packages are yesterday!
I know that packages used to be the way to distribute applications for Linux, but this is not true any more. Packages never were a good way to distribute applications to begin with. Linux developers know this. This is why they came up with new and better ways to distribute applications for Linux, namely AppImage, Flatpak and Snap. Unity devs don’t have to support them all, they only have to choose the one that fit their needs best.
AppImage was a fine choice. If, for any reason, Unity devs were not satisfied with it, they could just have picked Flatpak on Snap instead (I know that many people dislike Snap for various reasons but it works and that’s all that matter here). Distributing UnityHub via a package repository is a HUGE step back. This is not quality of life, it’s trouble for everybody, including Unity.
Please Unity, reconsider your decision.