MatterControl 2.x for Linux as an AppImage

MatterControl 2.x for Linux can be built for Linux (I have done it today) but it is rather cumbersome.

Would you be interested in packaging MatterControl 2.x for Linux as an Providing an AppImage?

Doing so would have, among others, these advantages:

• Applications packaged as an AppImage can run on many distributions (including Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, elementaryOS, Linux Mint, and others)
• One app = one file = super simple for users: just download one AppImage file, make it executable, and run
• No unpacking or installation necessary
• No root needed
• No system libraries changed
• Works out of the box, no installation of runtimes needed
• Optional desktop integration with appimaged
• Optional binary delta updates, e.g., for continuous builds (only download the binary diff) using AppImageUpdate
• Can optionally GPG2-sign your AppImages (inside the file)
• Works on Live ISOs
• Can use the same AppImages when dual-booting multiple distributions
• Can be listed in the AppImageHub central directory of available AppImages
• Can double as a self-extracting compressed archive with the --appimage-extract parameter

Especially in the 3D printing world, the format has gained a lot of traction, with most of the important slicers and CAD packages shipping official AppImages of release and pre-release versions:

• Ultimaker Cura
• Slic3r
• Slic3r Prusa Edition
• PrusaControl
• FreeCAD
• OpenSCAD
• …

Here is an overview of projects that are already distributing upstream-provided, official AppImages.

I would invest time into making this happen but since my Mono knowledge is rather limited I would do this only if MatterHackers is interested in providing and supporting an official AppImage, and if someone from the MatterControl project would be willing to work with me along the way.

We could set up automated build using Travis CI for each git push.

[johnmark]

Is there any more progress on this? Would love to have a Linux package.

[jlewin]

@probonopd - thanks for all your help on this issue and for continuing to staying interested in the solution. At first glace I’d think we can’t compile to the netcoreapp3.1 framework/profile as we require Mono on Linux for Winforms support. Microsoft announced netcore Winforms support but it’s only on Windows and they have yet to announce cross platform support. Further, Mono never kept up the Winforms effort and we’ve been plagued by Linux crashes due to poor support. It’s plausible that the Winforms layer could be replace with GTK+ or similar however work on that has remained on the back burner for a long time.

I’m no longer with MatterHackers but I remain interested in this option and may resume looking at it in the future and will definitely consider the netcore AppImage example if that happens, thanks.