this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Why can't flatpaks just work (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by ErnieBernie10@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I usually try to stay out of the whole snap vs flatpak discussion. Although I am just really confused as to why flatpak just does not seem to care about usability. You're trying to create a universal packaging format I would think the point of it is that a user can just install an app and after reviewing permissions it should "just work".

There are so many issues that yes, have simple solutions, but why are these issues here in the first place.

These are the issues that I have encountered that annoy me:

  • Themes, cursors being inconsistent (needs to be fixed manually with flatpak --user override
  • IDE's are unusable without extensions

At least snap provides an option --classic to make the app work. Please explain to me why flatpak just evidently refuses to take this same approach.

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[–] ErnieBernie10@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it would be good if they expanded the permissions system. Taking inspiration from the android world where it will ask for the permission whenever it needs to access something on the system. This is an ideal world but would take a lot of effort for the maintainers to implement. I guess it needs time to mature. I just hope flatpak devs want to adress the issue eventually... So far I only ever see people just accepting the way it is now and finding workarounds...

[–] nous@programming.dev 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Android has the benefit of being greenfield and has an API that everything needs to go through to access the system. Flatpacks and snaps do not have this. They need to work with applications that were never designed to be sandboxed and just expect to have access to everything all the time so is a much harder problem to solve.

[–] Molecular0079@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No reason why Flatpak can't create such an API though so that new applications can use it, older applications can eventually switch to, etc. We're already seeing adoption of things like xdg-desktop-portal so it isn't that out of the question.

[–] nous@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but this takes time and still has to work with applications that dont support it. Where Anrdoid can just force everyone that wants to create an app to use their API. So it is harder for flatpack to encourage everyone to adpot it.

[–] Molecular0079@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Of course, it will definitely take time to transition over, but that's the case for all APIs in the PC ecosystem. I am a firm believer of "if you build it people will come" and I am sure a well integrated Flatpak permissions system with good UX is a convincing argument for a lot of apps to switch over.