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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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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).
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My main point is that a running AppImage isn't isolated, it can access and modify any file that the user has the permission to. So theoretically, an AppImage could read and upload your ssh keys or put
rm -rf ~in your .bashrc.A Flatpak app on the other hand needs to either declare specific permissions in its manifest if it wants to e.g. access your home directory or use xdg-desktop-portal to ask for a permission at runtime. This can help when running proprietary/untrusted software or if you want to control what a program can do and what not.
A more popular example are Android apps which are executed in a strict sandbox and need to ask for permission if they want to read your images, access your microphone etc.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(computer_security)
Note that there were some discussions about adding sandboxing to AppImages: https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/issues/152
So do snaps and flatpacks. And they are still consider containerized / sandboxed. Appimages are the predecessors to snap and flatpack. The only difference is unlike Appimages they got it right for the most part.
Generally speaking the Appimages integrate with KDE better than all the other DE’s. The codes for Appimages are still containerized from the OS in general as defined in my last post.