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What is the point of Flatpak, AppImage, Snap, etc? (beehaw.org)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I don't understand what problem they are meant to solve. If you have a FOSS piece of software, you can install it via the package manager. Or the store, which is just a frontend for the package manager. I see that they are distribution-independent, but the distro maintainers likely already know what's compatible and what your system needs to install the software. You enjoy that benefit only through the package manager.

If your distro ships broken software because of dependency problems, you don't need a tool like Flatpak, you need a new distro.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

I'm on Debian because the software in the Debian repos is stable. So for mission-critical software, at least for my purposes, I'll pick the version in the Debian repo, especially if it requires detailed integration with the operating system such as real-time audio. If the software does get updated, it is probably important and nearly guaranteed not to break. A great example has been KDE Plasma: I don't get the bleeding-edge features, but it's been a rock-solid, fast, still modern desktop environment on every computer I installed it on, including an old laptop that is so underpowered that Windows 10 is a Power-Point presentation upon a fresh restart. If Debian takes several months or longer to update it's Plasma packages to Plasma 6 when it comes out next year, that would be fine for me because I don't desperately need any new features from Plasma.

However, for software that really benefits from being up-to-date and isn't a showstopper if it breaks, for example FreeTube, I prefer the Flatpak. I primarily use Discover for simple package management and upgrades, and it was trivial to install the Flatpak backend, so now my Flatpaks get updated like anything else. However, Librewolf (a browser, which I prefer to keep up-to-date) is installed from a non-Flatpak external repo because I had problems giving its Flatpak version webcam permissions (even if I enabled them in Flatseal).

AppImages have been great for working on new computers because I can (usually) just download them and go. Except for programs that I expect to be portable, I don't typically use them in the long haul. Still, they're super convenient to have around.

I don't touch Snaps because of the closed-source backend and their role in Canonical's transparent attempt to lock down Ubuntu, but if they open-source the backend I might consider trying them.

IMO part of why I've stuck with Linux is because there is (usually) a choice of how to compute. I.e., there are several ways to solve a problem where Windows or Mac would pigeonhole you into their workflow. Having multiple options is inherently a good thing as far as I'm concerned, even if I don't use all of them.