this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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Rust
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Better is a wild claim.
You're right, gists do seem to update with the static url, however that isnt necessarily better, it now means your gist is effectively under your control, and you can replace the installers with malware packed ones. Operating a software repository/installer requires that people trust you, and that is basically impossible for a no-name dev with no history.
You ideally should be doing checksum checks as well.
I use official links and check versions.
Sure, you might today, but tomorrow? How can anyone trust that you wont start serving malicious links?
It's open source. Anyone can audit it. You can create your own sources.list, but if you distribute it, you must open the code. Also, "wid info <package_name>" shows the exact URL it downloads from. Example: wid info llvm shows the official GitHub release link.
Thats how it works in theory, but in practice it comes down to trust more than anything else.
Its more effort to read and validate your list than it is to just go and download the installer directly. So you need people to trust you.
You're absolutely right. Trust is the real challenge, and I'm just starting to earn it. That's why I keep everything open and plan to add checksum verification. I know it takes time. I'm in it for the long run.