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Anyone else starting to favor Flatpak over native packages? (lemmy.one)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I am currently using Linux Mint (after a long stint of using MX Linux) after learning it handles Nvidia graphics cards flawlessly, which I am grateful for. Whatever grief I have given Ubuntu in the past, I take it back because when they make something work, it is solid.

Anyways, like most distros these days, Flatpaks show up alongside native packages in the package manager / app store. I used to have a bias towards getting the natively packed version, but these days, I am choosing Flatpaks, precisely because I know they will be the latest version.

This includes Blender, Cura, Prusaslicer, and just now QBittorrent. I know this is probably dumb, but I choose the version based on which has the nicer icon.

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[–] 8 points 3 years ago (6 children)

Nope, don't like them. Nor snaps. I find the sandbox nature annoying and many developers don't actually seem to understand it correctly anyway meaning you have to use flatseal etc. Then having to deal with some apps writing config within the sandbox and some writing it outside the sandbox...

My order of preference is generally I pick the "official" supported version as opposed to any community maintained ones. Then within that:

  • Install via the language's package manager (cargo, npm, pipx, cabal etc.)
  • Appimage
  • Native package (.deb, .rpm etc.)
  • Plain binary
  • Build from source
  • Snap
  • Flatpak
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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Out of interest why do you favour snap over flatpak?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    I've just had fewer issues with snaps. Honestly I don't care for either of them so the difference between them for me is pretty slim but I just find Flatpak to be particularly annoying, Snaps just haven't caused me any real issues other than polluting my device list with endless loop devices.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    True. I have run into a lot of dumb issues with sandboxing, mostly in choosing a folder other than downloads for file interaction.

    I have overlooked Appimage, and I will consider it. I am intrigued that you put it before native package. I had not considered using the package manager of the language it is built in, which honestly is probably the optimal way to install a package.

    Alright, I have some reading to do. I love learning new ways to do things. I am glad I asked!

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    There is a bit more nuance to it I suppose - I like Appimages for "complicated" apps, i.e. big GUI apps like Inkscape where I prefer native packages for terminal tools. The nice thing about Appimages is that there just isn't much in the way of integration and therefore its really easy to just try something out with no risk of installing a bunch of extra dependencies and no way of breaking your system - I use Appimagelauncher for managing them but have been considering swapping to something like Appman/AM.

    The other thing that sometimes puts me off of native packages is having to deal with excessive numbers of PPAs or other repos when they aren't in the main ones.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago

    That is a great consideration that I have not looked into in awhile. It seems to be the ultimate third, or perhaps second, solution for getting software to just work. I will look into Appimagelauncher, and try out that version is native or flatpak fails me somehow.

    Yeah, user submitted packages are such a risk sometimes.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    I handle it by spinning up an lxd container to try new apps.. then they have the whole machine to do what they like, and if the install doesn't work or I hate the app, just delete the entire container.

    lemmy was one of the harder ones to deal with because it needs docker.. I have a special profile that runs docker in a container for apps like that (I never run docker bare, it f..s around with the firewalling and breaks stuff).

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