I actually have tried to use the trusted version that comes with the Fedora packages. It was quite a while ago so I don't remember exactly why that didn't work, but I think it had to do with Fedora packaging an older version of Gradle than the build configuration required.

So, nice thought. I guess I could work out what Ubuntu system the author used and set up a matching Ubuntu toolbox (container) with the right Gradle version. It's not really a win for Gradle if the developer's operating system has to be shipped with the build system.