They can take longer to start up, which can suck on older hardware. It’s not as bad as it used to be though. Once they’re running there shouldn’t really be any difference. The main drawback is actually that Flatpaks use more storage space.
I am glad that the startup times have improved, that bodes well for future startup times. Using up more storage really is what makes it suck for everyone. I thought that it was more efficient, since I see a lot of .platform, and I assumed those are libraries shared across flatpak apps that use those dependencies.
I am almost sure AppImage has the same problem? I don’t know, people do rated that better though.
Storage space mostly isn’t as bad as it is with AppImages. Each AppImage stores all the libraries it needs, even if they are shared with another one. They can’t even know if they have shared libraries. A single AppImage will probably actually use less storage than a single Flatpak if you only have one, just because the AppImage only uses exactly the libraries it needs, while Flatpaks use shared sets of them. That being said, Flatpaks generally get less bad the more of them you use, because of the shared libraries. They’re still a whole extra set of libraries on top of your system ones though, plus they put out a new set every year. Apps that are still under active development generally get updated to the latest version, but older apps that are basically finished often require older libraries, so that’s more space used. Overall for a one off program when you’re not using universal packaging systems regularly AppImages are mostly better, but if you’re going to be using them regularly Flatpak quickly becomes far better. It still uses more storage space than just using native apps though.
Another difference between Flatpak and AppImage is that it can be kind of a pain to theme Flatpaks to match the rest of your system, and I don’t know of any good way to do it with qt6 apps yet, but it’s just straight up impossible to theme AppImages. They can technically have themes built into them, but unless you’re using Adwaita, or maybe Breeze if you’re lucky, they just don’t, and having to rebuild your own custom AppImage completely defeats the main benefit of using AppImages.
That is what I thought, and I was confused about people complaining about the redundancy. Also, every new program I install manually seems to pull a crap-tonne of new dependencies, so nobody is saving space.
There might be an increase in startup time and RAM usage because it loads it’s own dependencies instead of using system libraries, but the difference is probably very little.
I imagine that is the case. I also feel that is a trifle. Unless one is constantly closing and opening an application they use often, the extra seconds starting should not break a workflow.
Sure. I personally have not noticed a difference. Then again, I recently got a new computer, and all my other computers are over a decade old, so everything feels luxurious.
I remember in the beginning when leaving windows how quiet everything was. No notifications from windows about all kinds of shit, no ads and no interruptions. Have you noticed how calm it feels?
Assuming it isn’t you first time: there’s a slight learning curve, but once you’re passed a few months and you’ve resolved a few issues on your own you won’t look back!
Look into KDE extensions to customize your desktop just the way you want it! My windows wobble around or fizzle out of existence when I close them. :)
My first introduction to Linux was back in College in 2005. I ended up doing it off college but I’ve messed with Linux on and off over the years. A few months back I put GalliumOS on my Chromebook and I’ve done all sorts of stuff with the Raspberry pi. I wouldn’t say I’m proficient in the slightest and I know very few terminal commands but I think I can manage.
That is cool. I imagine it would be great to have an array of USBs with different distros for specialized uses.
For the most part, I don’t even look at the version number when downloading packages. Most of the time it does not matter. Still, when I need something up to date, all I have to do is choose the flatpak version.
As someone who uses Linux but only kinda, what advantages does flatpack offer over installing something with the provided package manager? (In my case that’s apt)
I use Flatpaks for everything I can. I like how Flatpak keeps apps in a container isolated from my system. Also, Flatpaks contains every lib in every version I need for my installed apps, which means It does not rely on my system libs, and I like It, cause my system libs is to make my system works only.
Great explanation and rationale for using Flatpaks! I hope others with questions see this.
I understand how people may be annoyed by the redundancy of every app packaging their own lib, but I swear those are measured in kilobytes, and people tend to be so obsessively minimalist it is a non-issue. Then again, minimalist are probably compiling their software.
I disagree. The other day I wanted to install some audio app that came in flatpak install format (I’ll check and add the name later). The app was less than 30MB in size, but the installation included 300MB of a previous version of org.freedesktop!
I haven’t used any flatpacks, mostly because they don’t seem to have a good solution for running terminal programs. (Also I don’t like that the application developer chooses the permissions to expose rather than the user.
However, I have been using bubblewrap which is what flatpack uses under the hood to sandbox. This allows me to run both gui and non-gui programs, and I have the control of exposing the minimum required permissions that I’m comfortable giving an untrusted piece of software.
I will be honest and reveal my naivete about the permissions. I don’t really mess with permission for any program, but I can see how some defaults may be bad.
I will look into bubble wrap, since the sandboxing is important, but the sheer convenience and availability of software is what is appealing.
People keep recommending it, I guess I will give it a try.
For a minute I was fascinated by GOBO Linux, and I really thought it would take off, but I think the developers must have moved on since there have been no updates. However, the ‘recipes’ seem to get actively updated, so maybe it is a stable enough system.
Nope. I’ve been running Debian for the past six years after I got tired of messing with arch. I’m over my shiny new thing syndrome and am happy with old but stable software. I’ve tried some flatpaks but the only two that I use are Spotify and signal. They take a lot of space and updating is slow.
I agree that stability is important, perhaps paramount, in a computing system. Still, some software like Cura, improve with every release, and it is worth upgrading for every new feature.
Anyways, I have never been concerned with space. On the whole programs don’t take up that much space compared to everything else I would put on my system like games. Also, I am the kind of person who wants all the software they would ever use installed on their system. I want my computer to be useful even when the internet goes out.
If you’re playing games, then latest software in terms of kernel and libraries are important. There’s a reason why valve switched to arch as a base for steamos. For my use case, I do a lot of coding in C using emacs so thing don’t really change that much. To each their own, that’s the beauty of Linux!
Thank you for saying this! The negativity here has been jarring. I understand preferences, but no reason to be mean about them.
I wanted to stay with Arch awhile back but I kept messing up the install of Nvidia drivers in like every distro, so I just have a lot of apprehension. Maybe it is better now. Still, I am in a good place distro wise.
Emacs the portable lisp machine that can do virtually everything. That must be so fun.
I seem to be in the minority here but I personally prefer using $ and # to denote root. I like this because not everyone uses sudo and might not even have it installed.
That being said, if you already have other commands that are using sudo -u … to run commands as a different user then it might be best to just be consistent and prefix everything with it, but if there is only a few of those maybe a # cp foo bar && chown www-data bar is an alternative.
Yeah, being consistent is definitely important. I can avoid sudo in many cases, but there are other pages where half the commands need to be executed as some user.
My Nextcloud page has that problem where php scripts need to be executed by the right user. But it also contains the installation instructions and there I can avoid using sudo. It’s like a 50/50 split between using # and sudo -u on that page :/
If you want a rolling release and like fedora maybe looking at rawhide. Otherwise suse tumbleweed is a solid choice.
Since you’re asking about Debian then SID is pretty much the rolling release version. This is what Ubuntu pulls from before doing their stuff. If you want close to bleeding edge this is a great way to get that rolling release feel. I know a few people who swear by it! I ran SID for a little while and it was okay but not for me. Arch was definitely better IMO for that. It’s also pretty easy to install arch (or gentoo) these days.
the fact with arch is that I’m a bit scared of messing things up, I was reading some articles about it and the AUR and I don’t know if I’m ready yet
how much unstable is debian unstable (XD) in your personal experience?
Personally, I'm looking for reproducible environments where if you create a lock file of your packages, you will get the exact same system on another machine if you copy it over
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