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Is there a downside to Flatpak? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Basically title.

I’m wondering if a package manager like flatpak comes with any drawback or negatives. Since it just works on basically any distro. Why isn’t this just the default? It seems very convenient.

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[–] 45 points 2 years ago (5 children)

For me it's lacking in user friendliness. Go easy on the downvotes if I'm doing it the hard way.

  • Flatpaks aren't really single-executables. You have to use to the flatpak command to run them.
  • I can't just say flatpak run firefox, I have to use the full app-id which could be quite long.

Yes, I could make this simpler with scripts or aliases but how hard would it have been for Flatpak to automatically do this for me?

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

    I'm using KDE and when I download a flatpak it automatically creates a .desktop file. I think gnome does this too if I'm not mistaken. I do have to restart or relogin for it to put the file there but that's not that bad IMO.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I think I've been having an issue with the Steam Flatpak where after updating, the .desktop file breaks. If not, my icon is broken for different reasons. Either way, I've been running Steam through the command line for ages.

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