Flatpak on Linux
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 7:45 am
Flatpak is a package maintainer, probably just for Linux but don't take my word for that, I don't know.
I have only just, finally, given a look at Flatpak as a way of installing and maintaining heavyweight applications.
As far as I can tell, you still need a distribution installed on your hardware. It still needs one of the windowing solutions - traditionally X11, these days perhaps Wayland. And you still need to have a GUI installed on top of that. I don't think any of those components can be held in a Flatpak.
The distribution maintains a host of libraries to which user programs have access. It means that user programs have to be compiled against those libraries. Either the user does that himself or the distribution managers maintain a repository of pre-compiled programs which the user can selectively install from.
Flatpak, by contrast, bundles major applications with all the required library components into a single unit. The library versions are selected by the Flatpak maintainer, not the distribution maintainer, and the Flatpak can be installed onto any distribution. That's a one-time recompile between versions for all users. The cost is that the installed Flatpak size on the user's disk is typically perhaps five time larger than the conventional distribution install because no libraries are shared between applications, they exist in many copies on the same disk, some of which will be different version releases.
If you have a modern drive measuring in Terrabytes then the odd 100 Gigabytes of overspill libraries will be insignificant and imperceptible to the user. On an older drive it will be practically impossible to achieve.
The upside for the user is that the Flatpaks will in general be fully up to date within weeks, unlike those on any distribution.
I've installed a few, having purged the distribution versions so as not to have duplicate apps. Here's what I replaced:
and it's working fine. They are more recent than those on the current updated Linux Mint which I'm trying it on, I've not noticed the disk bloat.
I'm still thinking about whether I approve.
I have only just, finally, given a look at Flatpak as a way of installing and maintaining heavyweight applications.
As far as I can tell, you still need a distribution installed on your hardware. It still needs one of the windowing solutions - traditionally X11, these days perhaps Wayland. And you still need to have a GUI installed on top of that. I don't think any of those components can be held in a Flatpak.
The distribution maintains a host of libraries to which user programs have access. It means that user programs have to be compiled against those libraries. Either the user does that himself or the distribution managers maintain a repository of pre-compiled programs which the user can selectively install from.
Flatpak, by contrast, bundles major applications with all the required library components into a single unit. The library versions are selected by the Flatpak maintainer, not the distribution maintainer, and the Flatpak can be installed onto any distribution. That's a one-time recompile between versions for all users. The cost is that the installed Flatpak size on the user's disk is typically perhaps five time larger than the conventional distribution install because no libraries are shared between applications, they exist in many copies on the same disk, some of which will be different version releases.
If you have a modern drive measuring in Terrabytes then the odd 100 Gigabytes of overspill libraries will be insignificant and imperceptible to the user. On an older drive it will be practically impossible to achieve.
The upside for the user is that the Flatpaks will in general be fully up to date within weeks, unlike those on any distribution.
I've installed a few, having purged the distribution versions so as not to have duplicate apps. Here's what I replaced:
Code: Select all
ungoogled-chromium com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium 114.0.5735.198 stable system
Google Earth Pro com.google.EarthPro 7.3.6 stable system
Visual Studio Code com.visualstudio.code 1.79.2-1686734195 stable system
GeoGebra org.geogebra.GeoGebra 6-0-790-0 stable system
GNU Image Manipulation Program org.gimp.GIMP 2.10.34 stable system
Inkscape org.inkscape.Inkscape 1.2.2 stable system
LibreOffice org.libreoffice.LibreOffice 7.5.4.2 stable system
VLC org.videolan.VLC 3.0.18 stable system
and it's working fine. They are more recent than those on the current updated Linux Mint which I'm trying it on, I've not noticed the disk bloat.
I'm still thinking about whether I approve.