Varia is a new, open-source download manager for Linux based on Aria2, a powerful command-line download utility. As the user interface is built with GTK 4
"Varia supports some basic functionality you'd expect, such as resuming incomplete downloads upon relaunch, but right now doesn't support saving files outside of your default download directory. I want to change this in the future while still having a minimal set of permissions with Flatpak."
giantpinkrobots on github
Big game changer for me is that it doesn't support saving files outside of the default download directory. Anything to do with 'Flatpak' is of a concern to me as well.
I'm an Arch user, so before I come across as disingenuous, I need to clarify that I just like to stick with 'pacman' as much as possible so that my install stays as "clean" as possible. Most of the time If I can't find something in pacman I can get it in the AUR. "Varia" isn't found in the AUR yet and in such cases I'll go to github and install it from there.
Interesting that my interpretation of a clean install is that there are as little packages messing with each other on the main install.
Therefor an immutable distro is very good in this regard.
Moreover, for a clean systme I prefer flatpaks. Packages that aren't available are installed via distrobox. Only system applications are allowed to mess with each other.
A download manager isn't that close to the metal that I'd prefer installing it directly. Flatpak all the way.
Fair enough, I guess each to his own. If you use a distro of your choice and apply a methodology that works for you, then far be it from me to tell you how to do it. Enjoy.
From my perspective those things are also pretty political.
E.g. Ubuntu ditched Flatpak in favor of their Snap solution. Snap has, compared to Flatpak only Ubuntu's proprietary store, where Ubuntu has full control over it. So it's also a fight about influence.
And it's breaking with traditional standards which people got used to and, as it's quite new, smaller things need still to be ironed out.