As a Linux user, you likely have packages installed from multiple sources – your distribution‘s repositories, Flatpak, Snap, AppImage, and more. Keeping track of these packages and managing updates can be a headache. Enter Bauh – the open source graphical toolkit that aims to be the central interface for all your Linux package management needs.
The Fragmentation of Linux Package Management
Linux package management has often been hailed as one of the platform‘s strongest assets. Powerful CLI tools like APT and RPM made installing software vastly more convenient than the Windows world of hunting down exe installers on dodgy websites.
But over the past decade, new packaging formats like Flatpak, Snap and AppImage have arrived to join the party. And things have gotten complicated fast.
Here‘s a quick overview of the different packaging approaches:
| Format | Managed By | Scope | Key Benefits | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEB/APT | apt, dpkg | Distribution | Tightly integrated, access to distro repository | Ubuntu deb packages |
| RPM/YUM | dnf, yum | Distribution | Tightly integrated, access to distro repository | Fedora rpm packages |
| Flatpak | flatpak | System | Portable runtimes, isolated from host deps | Flathub apps |
| Snap | snap | System | Easy cross-distro support, auto updates | Canonical snaps |
| AppImage | appimagetool | User | Single binary bundles all deps, no install | Open source appimages |
The arrival of these new universal binary package types like Flatpak and Snap brought many benefits – a wider app ecosystem less coupled to specific distros, portable runtimes and newer libraries decoupled from the host system, and technologies like auto-updating and sandboxing.
But an unforeseen downside was now Linux users suddenly had 5 different package managers to deal with, each with their own interfaces, commands, capabilities and gotchas. Simply managing updates became a chore jumping between apt, dnf, flatpak, snap and AppImages. Shipping a Linux app now means deciding which of the 5+ formats to support, or maintaining multiple packages in lockstep.
Fragmentation struck the Linux packaging ecosystem, with no unified management in sight. Enter Bauh.
What is Bauh?
Bauh is a Python-based open source application that aims to consolidation Linux package management by providing a unified interface to query, install, update and remove packages from all major sources. It can currently manage packages from:
- The native package managers of Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Manjaro, Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux
- Flathub for Flatpak packages
- Snapcraft for Snap packages
- AppImage packages
- Generic DEB and RPM files
So whether you have apt, dnf, pacman, or other package managers on your system, Bauh brings them all together into one place. No more context switching between multiple tools.
Some key capabilities and features of Bauh:
- See all your installed packages in one view, with categorization and filtering
- Upgrades for packages across different sources
- Search packages across different sources
- Install and remove packages from supported sources
- Notification of available updates
- Option for automatic updates
- Backup and restore packages
- A URpmi inspired suggestion system
- Multi-threaded downloads
- System tray integration
- Customizable UI with multiple themes including dark mode
Bauh‘s central dashboard gives you an eagle-eye view of your Linux application environment, while its unified commands simplify package management.
Current Adoption and Users
As an relatively new open source project first released in 2018, Bauh does not yet have available public metrics on GitHub downloads or user counts. However its active development momentum and growing community engagement indicates gradually increasing penetration.
Some lead indicators around adoption:
- 2200+ stars on GitHub places it among the top 1% of Python projects
- Over 10 contributors submitting PRs and issues each release
- An average of 15 issues reported per month on GitHub
- 144 members in the Telegram community discussion group
In terms of distro support, Bauh packages have been included in the community repositories of Manjaro and Arch Linux. Additionally, multiple Linux podcasts, newsletters and YouTube channels have covered Bauh features and installation.
While hard user statistics are not available, these signals suggest Bauh is likely installed on at least tens of thousands of Linux systems, based on comparable projects. As the software continues evolving with new capabilities, this userbase can be expected to grow steadily.
So while not yet a household name in the Linux world, Bauh certainly shows all signs of gradually gaining mainstream adoption.
Under the Hood: How Bauh Works
Understanding what happens behind the scenes can help explain Bauh‘s capabilities and value-add.
At its core, Bauh is an intelligent front-end that manages and orchestrates various downstream package managers. When you install, remove or upgrade a Flatpak with Bauh, behind the scenes it simply executes flatpak <action> <parameters> commands.
Bauh does not replace or modify any packaging systems. It only serves as unified interface that calls the existing tools. This approach provides aggregation without disruption.
The application maintains its own local database and cache of package metadata – names, versions, descriptions etc. This powers the search capabilities and dashboard view. Package icons and categories are scraped automatically from AppStream data or via community contributions.
Updates are identified by periodically querying each configured package source for available versions. For software types that don‘t inherently support upgrades like AppImages, a diff-based approach detects changes.
In this way, by merely orchestrating existing moving parts rather than replacing them, Bauh manages to tame the fragmentation of Linux package management.
Installing Bauh on Leading Distributions
Bauh offers native packages for Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora for easy installation:
Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install python3-pip
pip3 install bauhFedora
dnf install bauhFor other distros, download the latest AppImage release from the Bauh GitHub page. AppImages are self-contained binaries bundled with all needed libraries, allowing cross-distribution portability.
To run the AppImage:
- Mark it executable with
chmod +x [file].AppImage - Execute it!
Alternatively advanced users can compile Bauh from source following the developer instructions.
In short, Bauh can be test driven with minimal effort thanks to the prevalence of AppImage packaging. Plus once installed, Bauh itself can manage any future updates!
Walkthrough: Key Features and Capabilities
With Bauh installed, let‘s walk through some everyday usage flows to demonstrate the value it offers.
Unified view of all installed software
Clicking the All Apps tab shows a consolidated view of every application installed via any method on your system:
Here you can see Firefox installed from the Ubuntu repos, VS Code as a Snap, PyCharm via Flatpak, and terminal emulator Tilix from a third-party PPA. Having scattered applications aggregated together delivers that "single pane of glass" visibility.
Cross-format package upgrades
Having all packages in one view makes updating software utterly convenient. Any available updates are shown on the Upgrades tab:
With a single click you can update VS Code, despite it being a Snap entirely separate from the apt packages. No need to run sudo apt upgrade then sudo snap refresh. Updates Just WorkTM.
Search across repositories
When installing new software, Bauh offers unified search across all configured package sources:
Find packages from Debian repos, Fedora COPRs, Flathub, and more in a single result set. Linux veterans may recall the last tool to attempt this level of software aggregation was GNOME Software, with mixed results.
Application backup and restore
An invaluable capability Bauh offers is the ability to snapshot and restore applications in case an upgrade causes breakage:
Before performing risky package upgrades, snapshots can save the day when things go sideways!
Bauh will continue gaining more advanced features like this over time, incrementally expanding the swiss army knife.
Suggesting complementary software
For discovering new software to install, Bauh offers intelligent suggestions based on what you already have:
This can highlight useful tools you may be missing, like a Markdown editor to pair with your existing dev stack. Or media clients to connect to the servers you have running.
Performance Optimization For Large Package Sets
While most Linux users have under 100 applications installed, power users with over 500+ packages can stretch Bauh‘s limits. Fetching metadata and diffing upgrade availability for such large sets leads to performance degradation.
Recognizing this pain point, recent Bauh versions have implemented optimizations to handle high app counts:
- appdiff engine rewritten in C instead of Python for 10X speedup
- Thread count now matches CPU cores for parallelized checks
- Batching queries to avoid throttling by remote repos
- Metadata cached aggressively with background updates
Together these changes translate to significantly faster start times and update checks for "power user" systems. Of course users with normal app counts likely won‘t notice much change.
Ongoing profiling using cProfile guides further optimization efforts where possible. But ultimately there are physical limits around comparing hundreds of applications across multiple sources. The long tail of Linux packaging flexibility leads to asymptotic complexity Bauh cannot fully escape.
Community Contribution and Getting Involved
As an open source project aimed at unifying Linux packaging, Bauh is only possible thanks to active user contribution. Testing early releases, filing bugs, translating interfaces, suggesting features and more all accelerate development.
The best ways to get involved are:
- Star the project on GitHub
- Report any bugs or issues
- Submit feature requests and ideas
- Package Bauh for your favorite distro
- Write documentation and guides
- Share feedback and experiences
- Fix existing bugs with PRs
- Contribute code for new capabilities
For discussion and support there is a Telegram group at t.me/bauh_manager.
So if you find Bauh useful, pay it forward by helping the community grow!
Future Roadmap and Upcoming Capabilities
While already useful today, Bauh has an ambitious roadmap planned of expanding capabilities under active development:
Desktop file integration – Manage desktop launchers from Bauh
Tray app improvements – Update all apps without opening the GUI
Timeshift extension – Trigger system restore points before major upgrades
Containerized editions – Easily install using Docker and Podman
Package diffs – See changes between versions before upgrading
counted among the top 1% of Python projectsDependency management – Resolve and upgrade programming language libraries
Plus many other items described in the milestones like improved CPU monitoring, Android ports, and translation coverage.
As Bauh usage expands, the development community continues committing major improvements – especially to broaden cross distribution appeal.
So existing users have much to look forward to, while Linux newcomers may find more compelling capabilities upon their first encounters with Bauh.
Conclusion: Bauh Delivers on Linux Package Consolidation Potential
The fragmentation of Linux packaging once threatened the promise of unified and simplified software management that attracted many to the platform. As new formats like Snaps and Flatpaks took off in adoption, they also increased user confusion through added complexity.
Bauh single-handedly rescues this situation by taming the diversity, aggregating disparate packaging solutions into one clean interface. With broad distro support covering Debian, Red Hat, Arch, and all derivatives, Bauh offers a consistent experience regardless of the underlying plumbing.
Application discovery, installation, upgrading and removal all benefit from consolidated views across formats. Bauh lifts Linux package management out of disunity and towards the unified experience desktop users expect.
For power users and server admins juggling many mission critical applications, Bauh‘s snapshotting enables safer upgrades and rollbacks. No more anxiously reading changelogs trying to decipher the risk of radical package updates (looking at you pacman -Syu). Just backup and trial run new versions!
Of course with any ambitious open source project, there are areas needing continued improvement like non-Linux ports, emerging package formats, and non-x86 architectures. But the Linux consolidation value delivered today coupled with the project‘s momentum makes Bauh a clear package management winner.
Next time you dread slogging through apt, flatpak, Discover and dnf commands just to update things – give Bauh a try instead! Simplicity and sanity awaits.