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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What are your thoughts on Flatpak/Flathub? (flathub.org)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

215 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How does it stack up against traditional package management and others like AUR and Nix?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (2 children)

People need to realize that before Flatpak, distributing a small-time Linux app was a nightmare. Appimages were your best option if you wanted to avoid distro specific builds, PPAs and AUR, etc. Ever since packaging 2009scape on Flathub I haven't looked back. It auto updates. People can find it from software centers. It works on all distros. It connects straight to upstream's CICD. It even forced us to adopt XDG compliance so we could sandbox it better.

Yes, Flatpak has downsides like the download size (on disk it doesn't matter because it gets compressed and the runtimes are shared, same as literally any other package manager). But overall, I hugely welcome it over the options we had before. Much love to the Flatpak and Flathub devs!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ever since packaging 2009scape on Flathub I haven’t looked back.

So YOU are the one to blame for my latest Runescape addiction relapse! I only learned of the project because I stumbled on it while browsing flathub

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

LOL

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Flatpak shooould just download the diffs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They should, actually. Google released a tool for downloading only the diffs on binaries a few years ago

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They use ostree afaik, so "they should" as in "I think they do"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

And they did, with bsdiff, an algorithm invented awhile ago. I wish system package managers carried this/weren’t actively dropping their implementations :(