appcenter-web VS vos

There's also a lot of apps written in Vala for elementary OS's AppCenter with screenshots & links to GitHub: https://appcenter.elementary.io/ (not all, but most). I published two apps there and using Vala has been a great experience for creating Gtk/Linux desktop apps.

COVID hit like immediately afterwards so the sprint we had planned didn’t happen, but we did deliver on making AppCenter Flatpak-based so you can now install AppCenter apps on any distro just like you would any other Flatpak remote. You can browse and download apps at https://appcenter.elementary.io

So, something along the lines of the elementary AppCenter?

I'm not sure why you said it is difficult to distribute Flatpaks outside of Flathub. On the repo host side elementary has their own Flatpak repo complete with an app payment system (before even Flathub has one). On the user side I can simply download a .flatpakref from appcenter.elementary.io and double click it, which will open Software with the app's metadata, and clicking Install will add the repo and install the app.

Elementary OS has a pay what you want store. That might be a good route to go down.

Yes, elementary is Ubuntu based, however it stands very far from it. It doesnt use snaps at all and instead uses flatpak. You can also just use apt if you really don't like Flatpak either. The "main" way to install software is through the AppCenter app, which uses flatpaks. They have their own software repository (appcenter) where apps are "curated" (aka all follow the elementary HIG and use the latest SDK version). But you can also install "non-curated" apps (aka from Flathub) directly from the AppCenter.

You probably know that if you use desktop mode, you can use Discover to install a bunch of applications via Flatpak from a repository called Flathub. But, you can add an additional repository from another distro, Elementary OS, to get access to even more apps. They will show up in Discover, just like all others. To do this, simply execute:

elementary os appcenter https://appcenter.elementary.io/

AppCenter, which is focused on open source GTK apps and accepts payments on elementary OS

Elementary AppCenter - setup

That's true for a vast majority of devs, but not for everyone. There are people like Jon Blow and projects like https://vlang.io

V uses a GC by default, but it's easily disabled per function/module via the @[manualfree] attribute or for the entire project via `v -gc none`

https://vlang.io

The creator of V made some big claims that raised a few eyeballs, they've gained a reasonable following over the years, have a pretty serious looking website (https://vlang.io) a beer-money level Patreon following and some corporate partnerships/sponsors. However have experienced some pretty brutal takedowns over the years, with some of the bolder claims about the language/compiler being exposed as being.

A word I keep seeing in relation to V is "aspirational" - the project aspires to be a serious language with some major features, so I think it's fair to approach it with a more critical eye than one would a kid's side-project. I think HN would have been pretty understanding if they were open about the state of the various features and were a little less defensive when they encounter articles that treat it like a Real Language and review it as such. If the authors don't want this kind of feedback they can just say front-and-centre (or on their FAQ @ https://github.com/vlang/v/wiki/FAQ) "this is a toy" or "this is pre-alpha"

Autofree has existed for years and can work. Here is a demo. It is used in V's Vinix OS, Ved, and other applications. Part of the issue is there are detractors who purposefully spread misinformation nor know about its other memory options, and the other part is understanding how to use it.

Another option is to write the kernel in V. Vinix is an OS written in V. You can use it for reference when building your project.