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Flatpak, builder, Ubuntu contributing to Gnome. 2017 is a great year for Gnome. I think these improved devtools will really help adoption. There are tons of

Flatpak, builder, Ubuntu contributing to Gnome. 2017 is a great year for Gnome. I think these improved devtools will really help adoption. There are tons of developers (like myself) who don't make apps for linux because its too much effort. The easier it is the less excuses I have.

chrisper 10y ago
Won't Ubuntu still use Snap though?
- johnny22 10y ago
  the builder folks said they would accept a snap plugin, so snaps will work fine with this setup.
  - audidude 10y ago
    The flatpak support is provided as a plugin. So assuming they do the same work and commit to maintaining it upstream, I'll accept it.
    - sandGorgon 10y ago
      @christian - what do you personally think is the long term future of snap vs flatpack. Is it going to be another 30 years of 2 different packaging formats.
      - AsyncAwait 10y ago
        Not OP, but Flatpack I think Snaps will go the way of Mir in due time, Flatpack is integrated into GNOME.
        sandGorgon 10y ago
        The opportunity for Linux is now - unify the future packaging format. It doesnt matter to me which one wins, as long as there is one. life will be infinitely easier for people who will package linux software.
        curt15 10y ago
        They do have different scopes, however, as flatpaks are currently not designed to deliver system components.
      - audidude 10y ago
        @sandGorgon: Hard to say at this point. My personal opinion is that when it comes to building, shipping, and securing desktop applications, Flatpak is the better design. That is why I put my energy behind that project. I make my bets with code.
- rukittenme 10y ago
  Probably but who knows. I'm sure there are plenty of ways Ubuntu can contribute upstream when they start tweaking for their own desktop release.
  - dmix 10y ago
    Ubuntu using GNOME is easily the biggest deal for Linux desktop in a long time. The recent versions of GNOME in the last year or so have been rock solid. The designers have been tweaking it since 3 launched to make it pixel perfect. I like the style better than OSX and I'm a front-end dev. Especially in dark-mode, with the always black top bar, it blends perfectly with a terminal heavy workflow. No semi-transparent background and grey chrome to distract from black terminals. And splitting/floating windows is built-in with shortcuts so it's easy to have [terminal/dev tools][chrome] side by side without installing any 3rd party tools. I normally use a tiling WM (i3/BSPWM), usually combined with gnome 3 for window chrome/nautilus, but since the last reinstall I haven't felt the need as I like the new gnome desktop. I hope their teams collaborate on a Gnome 4 release.
    - chrisper 10y ago
      What do you think about the huge title bars? Probably the most annoying thing about Gnome imho. I know you can adjust it, but still. If you Google you need to find a good fix that is compatible with your version. I used Gnome for quite some time, but now I am using Cinnamon.
      - abrowne 10y ago
        I like them, assuming I'm using a higher-than-traditional but not "retina"/doubled dpi, such as a 1920×1080 on a 13″ screen.
      - sametmax 10y ago
        Most annoyances from gnome shell can be fixed by using the proper addons. The bad news is that it's time consuming and really you shouldn't have to do that. The good news is that toggling an addon is a one-click operation. E.G: disable huge title bars: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/723/pixel-saver/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/723/pixel-saver/
- dustinkirkland 10y ago
  Yes.
  - chrisper 10y ago
    Makes sense, considering that snap goes beyond Desktop. (E.g. cloud etc.)
- dustinkirkland 10y ago
  Yes.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- audidude 10y ago
  I should mention that this is just a way to simplify how you contribute to GNOME apps (and libraries/services for the adventurous). We are using technologies that were incubated in GNOME to simplify contributing to GNOME. This includes OSTree, Flatpak, and Builder currently. It's unlikely that jhbuild will disappear for things that require an entire session (shell, mutter, dbus, etc), at least in the short term. This in no way affects users, or distributions that choose to use something other than Flatpak to ship applications. It's simply a shortcut for contributors to get started without building the dependency tree. No more build breakages in the dependency graph. No more compiling WebKit.
kochthesecond 10y ago
I know, I might try contributing something to gnome, the last time I looked into it, it was probably a hundred hour investment to get a code change in.

chrisper 10y ago

Won't Ubuntu still use Snap though?

johnny22 10y ago
the builder folks said they would accept a snap plugin, so snaps will work fine with this setup.
- audidude 10y ago
  The flatpak support is provided as a plugin. So assuming they do the same work and commit to maintaining it upstream, I'll accept it.
  - sandGorgon 10y ago
    @christian - what do you personally think is the long term future of snap vs flatpack. Is it going to be another 30 years of 2 different packaging formats.
    - AsyncAwait 10y ago
      Not OP, but Flatpack I think Snaps will go the way of Mir in due time, Flatpack is integrated into GNOME.
      - sandGorgon 10y ago
        The opportunity for Linux is now - unify the future packaging format. It doesnt matter to me which one wins, as long as there is one. life will be infinitely easier for people who will package linux software.
      - curt15 10y ago
        They do have different scopes, however, as flatpaks are currently not designed to deliver system components.
    - audidude 10y ago
      @sandGorgon: Hard to say at this point. My personal opinion is that when it comes to building, shipping, and securing desktop applications, Flatpak is the better design. That is why I put my energy behind that project. I make my bets with code.
rukittenme 10y ago
Probably but who knows. I'm sure there are plenty of ways Ubuntu can contribute upstream when they start tweaking for their own desktop release.
- dmix 10y ago
  Ubuntu using GNOME is easily the biggest deal for Linux desktop in a long time. The recent versions of GNOME in the last year or so have been rock solid. The designers have been tweaking it since 3 launched to make it pixel perfect. I like the style better than OSX and I'm a front-end dev. Especially in dark-mode, with the always black top bar, it blends perfectly with a terminal heavy workflow. No semi-transparent background and grey chrome to distract from black terminals. And splitting/floating windows is built-in with shortcuts so it's easy to have [terminal/dev tools][chrome] side by side without installing any 3rd party tools. I normally use a tiling WM (i3/BSPWM), usually combined with gnome 3 for window chrome/nautilus, but since the last reinstall I haven't felt the need as I like the new gnome desktop. I hope their teams collaborate on a Gnome 4 release.
  - chrisper 10y ago
    What do you think about the huge title bars? Probably the most annoying thing about Gnome imho. I know you can adjust it, but still. If you Google you need to find a good fix that is compatible with your version. I used Gnome for quite some time, but now I am using Cinnamon.
    - abrowne 10y ago
      I like them, assuming I'm using a higher-than-traditional but not "retina"/doubled dpi, such as a 1920×1080 on a 13″ screen.
    - sametmax 10y ago
      Most annoyances from gnome shell can be fixed by using the proper addons. The bad news is that it's time consuming and really you shouldn't have to do that. The good news is that toggling an addon is a one-click operation. E.G: disable huge title bars: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/723/pixel-saver/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/723/pixel-saver/
dustinkirkland 10y ago
Yes.
- chrisper 10y ago
  Makes sense, considering that snap goes beyond Desktop. (E.g. cloud etc.)
dustinkirkland 10y ago
Yes.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
audidude 10y ago
I should mention that this is just a way to simplify how you contribute to GNOME apps (and libraries/services for the adventurous). We are using technologies that were incubated in GNOME to simplify contributing to GNOME. This includes OSTree, Flatpak, and Builder currently. It's unlikely that jhbuild will disappear for things that require an entire session (shell, mutter, dbus, etc), at least in the short term. This in no way affects users, or distributions that choose to use something other than Flatpak to ship applications. It's simply a shortcut for contributors to get started without building the dependency tree. No more build breakages in the dependency graph. No more compiling WebKit.

kochthesecond 10y ago

I know, I might try contributing something to gnome, the last time I looked into it, it was probably a hundred hour investment to get a code change in.