What are your thoughts on Flatpak/Flathub?
What are your thoughts on Flatpak/Flathub?
Flathub aims to be the place to get and distribute apps for Linux. It is powered by Flatpak which allows Flathub apps to run on almost any Linux distribution.
How does it stack up against traditional package management and others like AUR and Nix?
You're viewing a single thread.
I'm a bit "eh" on flatpak. The only benefit I see is that it's sometimes more up-to-date than what I can get from an LTS package repository. As a heavy CLI user they force me to find and click icons which is irritating (yeah - I know about
flatpak run something.I.always.forgetbut that's even worse somehow).I've hit occasional issues with applications being too locked-down. Like with Darktable only being able to see things in $HOME/Pictures. But I keep my photography work in a different location so it can't see it. I had to jump through some odd hoops to fix that. Not a problem of flatpak itself per se but something you can expect when dealing with package makers.
I fall back on flatpak if the version available through the standard package manager is too out-of-date for my liking. Other than that I can't be bothered.
EDIT: Okay - for people who think they're being "helpful" by telling me that "aliases are a thing" just stop. I'm not going to workaround a broken system. I'm going to use another one that isn't broken (or less broken).
If you're going to use flatpak from the command line you're definitely going to need to start aliasing those flatpak run commands. It's still annoying, but at least that way it's only annoying once.
No. I'll use snaps before I start maintaining a bunch of aliases that I shouldn't have to. It's a flaw in flatpak.
Well okay. I agree that it's a flaw in Flatpak, but if you think adding a single line to your .bashrc is some kind of unbearable burden that you shouldn't have to endure and you're willing to make your own experience far worse just to avoid it, then I think you're being a bit silly. I mean, be as silly as you want. Don't let me tell you what to do. You are being silly though.
if you think adding a single line to your .bashrc is some kind of unbearable burden that you shouldn’t have to endure and you’re willing to make your own experience far worse just to avoid it, then I think you’re being a bit silly.
I'm making my experience much better actually? Stop justifying flatpak's flaws because you like flatpak. It's flawed. Deal with it.
I don't even like flatpak very much, I'm not currently using it at all, and I already agreed it was flawed right at the very start of the quote you cut off there. I was just trying to be helpful. Sorry. Won't happen again. If you want to make things hard for yourself and no one else as a weird self-defeating protest then don't let me stop you. Don't pretend I didn't do the thing I just did and you had to edit out of the quote though. That's a real dick move, frankly.
If you want to make things hard for yourself
I'm sorry - but WTF? What part of me "doing something that is easier for me" also "making things hard for myself?" Talk about a "dick move"...
No snaps are insecure on other distros that Ubuntu, as they are only isolated using apparmor. Also they are nonfree by design, just no.
They're not insecure. No more so than when I install a package via apt. No more so than when I download some code and compile it. This is propaganda.
They are less secure than flatpaks and there was malware on that store
You think the unverified flatpaks which choose their own permissions are "safe"?
You have the option to add the verified subset only, and you can always check permissions before starting an installed app, and it will not start before.
I'm sure everyone does that.
Yeah with Snaps you also have unofficial packages, no apparmor at all and a mix of foss and nonfoss apps.
But with flatpak these things are accessible and Flatseal is very commonly used.
"Already perfect" vs. "Has the foundation to fix it easily" distros could easily allow to add the subset or improve the permission system.
Do... Do you think I'm claiming snaps are better or something? I'm saying they're much easier to use and I don't give a shit about walled-garden BS. I don't want my laptop to be like my phone. I want to install an application and I want it to work. Flatpaks are fine - they just made a really stupid decision about how to run them from the CLI which is 90% of the time where I launch programs from.
Sandbox not working = insecure. Very simple
Indeed - if your understanding of "secure" is that simple then that definition works fine.
In the real world there is no such thing as "secure" and "insecure" - there are tradeoffs and levels of security.
Oh yeah for sure I’m just mentioning what it means in this context. Definitely means snap is more insecure off Ubuntu though.
Try this aliasing script I made
No idea if it still works lol, but should tbh. I think its even pretty well done.
- Lists your installed flatpak apps
- Searches for already added aliases
- Convert the appname to be the last part, remove
-_ - Alias to bash, fish, zsh
Only thing missing is handling duplicate apps I think.