this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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I've been involved with Linux for a long time, and Flatpak almost seems too good to be true:
Just install any app on any distro, isolated from the base system and with granular rights management. I've just set up my first flatpak-centric system and didn't notice any issues with it at all, apart from a 1-second waiting time before an app is launched.

What's your long-term experience?

Notice any annoying bugs or instabilities? Do apps crash a lot? Disappear from Flathub or are unmaintained? Do you often have issues with apps that don't integrate well with your native system? Are important apps missing?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I always use Flatpaks when available, I have been using it for about 1~2 years and honestly, I haven't found any issues that are deal breakers, mostly some missing storage permissions, but KDE makes this easy to deal with. I know some apps have some issues, but the biggest one that I had is that Steam Flatpak still requires Steam-Devices to be installed as a package, but that's more to do with the way Steam Input works.

The only issue that I have is that uninstalling Flatpaks should present an option to delete the app data.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So how do you delete app data after uninstalling?
And does uninstalling a flatpak app also uninstall flatpak dependencies that came with it?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

flatpak uninstall --delete-data example-package

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

And does uninstalling a flatpak app also uninstall flatpak dependencies that came with it?

from what I have seen, NO it does not do so automatically. there is a flatpak command option to clean out unused runtimes, and another to remove user data.

delete app data after uninstalling?

you either manually delete the data, or there's some flatpak command option, or you can use a tool such as warehouse which is available as a flatpak.

other posts list the specific commands.

[–] mcmodknower 10 points 1 year ago

you can use flatpak remove --unused --delete-data to remove all unused dependencies and delete their data.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

from what I have seen, NO it does not. there is a flatpak command option to clean out unused runtimes.

It does. The unused command is mostly for after updates, then what’s used may have changed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you install your flatpaks through the discover store it gives you an option to delete data whenever you uninstall

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Same on Gnome software

But I guess I agree that it should prompt you when doing it through a TUI

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Check out Warehouse for deleting app data