This absolutely should not be an addon application. If a flatpak can’t cleanly uninstall then it needs to be reported and removed. Otherwise what’s the point of centralizing Linux app installs around repos and flatpaks? Might as well go the windows route and install things to random directories.
The user data in your homedir is usually left intact, which makes sense to me, especially in a multi user environment. That’s not unique to flatpak either. If you reinstall you retain your settings, session, etc. For flatpak you can find those in ~/.var/app.
The uninstall process should ask if you want that stuff left alone or not. Sometimes you are reinstalling because you messed up a config or cache and don’t know how to clear it. This is a major way Linux could become more like Windows in a good way. When you uninstall something from Windows is very program specific but 99% of the time now, it asks if you want to remove user data.
Imagine a system where you are just an end user, one of hundreds or even thousands, and the admin removes an application. I would be furious if the admin would also delete my personal application data from my homedir. There could be important settings in there, that I might want to move to another system, or maybe I’ll install my own flatpak in my homedir and continue to use those settings. There could be stuff in there that’s important and for which no backup exists.
So how would you implement that: would you, while uninstalling a system flatpak, be given the option to only remove your personal files and leave the files in other homedirs intact? Or should it remove the files for all other users too, without their permission? In my opinion the best way is to just leave the files alone. I think it makes sense and I think using a 3rd party app to remove the remnants is fine. It works the same on Windows, MacOS and Linux. Maybe adding something to the OS to detect these files and ask each user independently would be a nice addition, but not as part of the uninstall process of the flatpak.
Imagine a system where you are just an end user, one of hundreds or even thousands, and the admin removes an application. I would be furious if the admin would also delete my personal application data from my homedir. There could be important settings in there, that I might want to move to another system, or maybe I’ll install my own flatpak in my homedir and continue to use those settings. There could be stuff in there that’s important and for which no backup exists.
Yeah, it should be a setting. Up to the admin to pick if the settings are kept or not or let the user decide. It absolutely works fine with Windows which is far more used in corporate settings than Linux in terms of end-user OS.
Do you know what would make me furious? If I as a system admin removed an application due to huge security risks that could have infected cache or user data and some random user tried to install it against my clear wishes to not have it on my system. If you want to infect your own system, go ahead. It’s not the 70s anymore though. No one is using dummy terminals. Everyone can locally install something locally. If you don’t have admin access to your own computer there is a good reason why you don’t.
So overall I don’t see this as a good argument to default to keeping the files. Especially if it’s a security risk situation.
So how would you implement that: would you, while uninstalling a system flatpak, be given the option to only remove your personal files and leave the files in other homedirs intact? Or should it remove the files for all other users too, without their permission?
Should be an option. VLC has this option on Windows along with other applications. You can install VLC for a user to use or for the system and you can clear the configs/cache/etc on uninstall. Literally, just copy that. If an “admin” has deemed the settings should be removed then remove them. It’s their system, not the users.
Realistically I agree but it should be optional with a command flatpak clean or something in gnome software or discover. I’d like to safely cleanup my user data without relying on a 3rd party app.