this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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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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[–] D_Air1@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

I used them for some things, but other things still don't work quite right. Take Steam for example. I do love flatpaks for testing out apps, things with really finicky dependencies, or pinning a specific version of a software that I want to continue to work in the future. However, for most things, Arch + AUR just covers all my needs without any hiccups.

To me flatpaks are sort of like NixOS. All the benefits they provide aren't something I need on a daily basis. Rolling back works just fine 99% of the time with downgrade. I already have system backups. Despite what some articles might insist, things don't just break all the time. I'm not running untrusted software.

Basically no solution is perfect, but they don't need to be. If the benefits I gain can be recreated through other methods without the tradeoffs they introduce, then I will go with that. Of course, that isn't to say they don't have their place, but sometimes I feel like some people think that "being designed from the ground up" to handle certain use cases is always better than whatever "cobbled together" thing we currently have and that isn't always the case. I'm specifically quoting those two phrases because these are the exact phrases you will hear projects using to justify their existence. In fact, I would go so far as to say that some people have outright confused modularity for "cobbled together".

One last example I want to make is that I make use of projects like the fish shell and helix editor. In these cases, I find the features they introduce to be worth the tradeoffs and work better because of being designed "from the ground up" to do what they do. However, I don't make use of immutable systems, containers such as docker, or say filesystems such as btrfs. The features they provide are not useful enough to me compared to the problems they introduce.

[–] jabeez@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago

Is that supposed to be Ed Norton, or just an uncanny coincidence?

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Furniture? Integrated circuit packaging?

Just another tool in the toolbox. Use it or not, up to the user. I've even seen Slackware users who say they use Flatpak to ward off dependency rabbit holes.

[–] HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Honestly, I am a little scarred from snap.

Otherwise I'm agnostic on flatpaks - I've used a couple and they're ok? They just remind me of old windows games that dump all their libraries in a folder with them.

On a modern system the extra space and loss of optimisation is ok, but on older hardware or when you're really trying to push your system to run something it technically shouldn't, I can see it being an issue.

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That reminds me, is Flatpak packaging CLI tools already?

[–] NotProLemmy@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] rfr_Foglia@feddit.it 3 points 1 week ago

Looks like it does? Or at least could?

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/740712/does-flatpak-support-command-line-applications

I've never seen one so far though

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[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

there's a gui for flatpaks?

[–] shrewdcat@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

No gui's to my knowledge, but there are package managers that can install them, such as Bauh.

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[–] buwho@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

theyre whatever, they have their place in my system, but inprefer installing debs from the repo

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

When I open my task manager I see flatpak-session-helper near the top of the list for ram usage and am suspicious

[–] Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Flatpaks are pretty great for getting the latest software without having to have a cutting edge rolling release distro or installing special repos and making sure stuff doesn't break down the line.

I use Flatpaks for my software that I need the latest and greatest version of, and my distros native package for CLI apps and older software that I don't care about being super up to date.

My updater script handles all of it in one action anyways, so no biggie on that either.

Flatpaks are the best all-in-one solution when compared to Appimages or Snaps imo.

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[–] m532@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Idk how, but one time I tried installing something as a flatpak and it took like 300+MB and a very long time. I figured something was wrong, found a way to install it normally and it took like 10MB and installed quickly. Idk what went wrong, but I'll never touch this garbage again

Edit: oh they're not for arch. Maybe they should have told me before the 300mb slog

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