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Flatpak is the future of Linux desktop applications for so many reasons, but among them it allows users not to be caught up in the dependancy mess that plagues

Flatpak is the future of Linux desktop applications for so many reasons, but among them it allows users not to be caught up in the dependancy mess that plagues Linux distributions. Some of the criticism here does not belong to Flatpak. E.g Fedora's weird duplication of repositories is exclusively a Fedora problem. Has absolutely nothing to do with Flatpak. Applications such as VLC and GIMP which 'ship' with access to whole filesystem permission is an eternal dilemma. Would you rather the authors ship without access to this permission and break app functionality ? Or let them ship with restrictive permission and allow users to manually enable respective permissions to regain function when the software breaks? It is easy to see the feasible decision here that works for all parties here. The permission on the different accessibility store however has confusing labels on sandboxing, I agree with the point that the store should make this as clear as possible. I think the bigger point the article misses is the ability to control these permissions at this level. Even if the software author ships 'dangerous' default permissions, the user can always revert this decision and sandbox it effectively if they so wish. Flatpak is a crucial needed fix for the Linux package distribution problems highlighted elaborately by this article but in my humble assessment, the benefits to this solution massively outweigh the nuances such as the one the author mentioned about package sizes.

jcelerier 5y ago
> Applications such as VLC and GIMP which 'ship' with access to whole filesystem permission is an eternal dilemma. Would you rather the authors ship without access to this permission and break app functionality ? to give a data point, I work with a lot of artists who use Macs and none of them use mac app store apps because of endless issues when accessing the file system
smoldesu 5y ago
Counterpoint: Flatpak doesn't really solve anything, and I have no reason to use a Flatpak'd version of a software when there's a native version in my system repos. A lot of people feel this way: they see it when Flatpak doesn't adopt their native system theme, they see it when they try opening a filepicker and it starts in some esoteric location, they see it when they want to edit files of a Flatpak'd app and need to spend the afternoon locating it's binary. There are so many papercuts, bugs, regressions and failures on Flatpak's behalf that I don't think anyone would really want to adopt it unless they were forced to. I speak only for myself, but I will never enable Flatpak on any of my devices. A lot of other Linux users share the sentiment.
- oynqr 5y ago
  Apps not adopting to your theme is a feature, at least when you ask some Gnome devs.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    It's a regression, when you ask the other 95% of Linux users who aren't "enjoying" stock GNOME.
  - f1refly 5y ago
    The typical user also doesn't want file picker thumbnails when you ask the Gnome devs ;)
- FengLengshun 5y ago
  I used to have the same opinion, up until I get how things work with Flatpak apps better. It was so confusing at first as to why saved files sometimes don't appear in the right directory. Then I learned about Flatseal, which I used in initial setup and whenever some things don't work right. It gives me a nice and simple GUI way of managing permissions, which I like as a layman. Theming was confusing at first. The best I could do initially was setting env variable on Flatseal with GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark, until it clicked to me that the config folder inside ./var/app/flatpak.app.name/ folders is the config folder they access instead of ~/.config so I could just copy-paste the gtk-3.0 (or 2.0, 4.0, or all of them) folder in ~/.config to get theming to work. The only thing that I haven't figured out yet is Native Host Messaging or whatever it's called, that's needed for connecting with things like Global Menu and Plasma/GNOME Integration extensions on browsers. It was a hassle at first, but like learning Linux, I just learn it bit by bit. And now I like it because at least there's an easy way for me to find and get the apps I want. It's easier to deal with than Snap and AppImage for me now. Hell, my experience dealing with dependency issues with CrossOver on Arch made me wish they have a Flatpak so I don't have to deal with it.

jcelerier 5y ago

> Applications such as VLC and GIMP which 'ship' with access to whole filesystem permission is an eternal dilemma. Would you rather the authors ship without access to this permission and break app functionality ? to give a data point, I work with a lot of artists who use Macs and none of them use mac app store apps because of endless issues when accessing the file system

smoldesu 5y ago

Counterpoint: Flatpak doesn't really solve anything, and I have no reason to use a Flatpak'd version of a software when there's a native version in my system repos. A lot of people feel this way: they see it when Flatpak doesn't adopt their native system theme, they see it when they try opening a filepicker and it starts in some esoteric location, they see it when they want to edit files of a Flatpak'd app and need to spend the afternoon locating it's binary. There are so many papercuts, bugs, regressions and failures on Flatpak's behalf that I don't think anyone would really want to adopt it unless they were forced to. I speak only for myself, but I will never enable Flatpak on any of my devices. A lot of other Linux users share the sentiment.

oynqr 5y ago
Apps not adopting to your theme is a feature, at least when you ask some Gnome devs.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  It's a regression, when you ask the other 95% of Linux users who aren't "enjoying" stock GNOME.
- f1refly 5y ago
  The typical user also doesn't want file picker thumbnails when you ask the Gnome devs ;)
FengLengshun 5y ago
I used to have the same opinion, up until I get how things work with Flatpak apps better. It was so confusing at first as to why saved files sometimes don't appear in the right directory. Then I learned about Flatseal, which I used in initial setup and whenever some things don't work right. It gives me a nice and simple GUI way of managing permissions, which I like as a layman. Theming was confusing at first. The best I could do initially was setting env variable on Flatseal with GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark, until it clicked to me that the config folder inside ./var/app/flatpak.app.name/ folders is the config folder they access instead of ~/.config so I could just copy-paste the gtk-3.0 (or 2.0, 4.0, or all of them) folder in ~/.config to get theming to work. The only thing that I haven't figured out yet is Native Host Messaging or whatever it's called, that's needed for connecting with things like Global Menu and Plasma/GNOME Integration extensions on browsers. It was a hassle at first, but like learning Linux, I just learn it bit by bit. And now I like it because at least there's an easy way for me to find and get the apps I want. It's easier to deal with than Snap and AppImage for me now. Hell, my experience dealing with dependency issues with CrossOver on Arch made me wish they have a Flatpak so I don't have to deal with it.