What has been your experience with Flatpak?

I’ve been involved with Linux for a long time, and Flatpak almost seems too good to be true:
Just install any app on any distro, isolated from the base system and with granular rights management. I’ve just set up my first flatpak-centric system and didn’t notice any issues with it at all, apart from a 1-second waiting time before an app is launched.

What’s your long-term experience?

Notice any annoying bugs or instabilities? Do apps crash a lot? Disappear from Flathub or are unmaintained? Do you often have issues with apps that don’t integrate well with your native system? Are important apps missing?

snugglebutt,
@snugglebutt@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Don’t really see the point of installing a whole other package manager, personally. If its not in the repos or AUR, I’ll just compile from source.

Smokeydope,
@Smokeydope@lemmy.world avatar

Its quick and easy to install a flatpak which is the latest stable which is a godsend when the versions available through package manager are years out of date. Not everyone can compile from source or add an additional source repo. My only big issue is how bloated flatpaks are size wise and where stuff gets installed in my file system.

stella,

Good for software that isn’t available any other way.

I never use flatpaks if something is available in the Manjaro repository or AUR.

CuriousTommy,

Generally speaking, it has been a great experience for most apps I use. The only exception is Steam, it runs well, but sometimes I run into a few issues.

  • This might be due to me using an NVIDIA GPU, but after I do a graphics update, my game (Team Fortress 2) doesn’t launch until I reset Steam.
  • I like joining a third party MvM servers through the website (potato.tf), sometimes joining the game causes a second instance of Steam to launch for some reason…
clemdemort,
@clemdemort@lemmy.world avatar

They take a lot of space but the advantages you get are amazing, VScodium broke again this week, I could just rollback to the commit that worked with no issues. I can install apps I don’t trust and not give them any permission over my filesystem. And best of all: it works on any distro so I know my setup is reproducible easily.

radioactiveradio,

I try to limit the apps i install from flathub cuz limited space.

Maragato,
@Maragato@eslemmy.es avatar

For recent machines it works fine, but on older machines it feels slower than non-encapsulated software.

Churbleyimyam,

I’ve gone back to using packages from my repo. I was all-in with flatpaks for a while because they tend to be more up to date than my distro’s packages and I liked the idea of the sandboxing but in practice I’ve found it a nuisance getting applications to speak to each other and I don’t like all the redundant code bloating my internal drive. The thing that really did it for me though was the other day when I had to restore my system from a Timeshift backup. It took an hour and a half to restore a recent backup, with well over 90% of that time showing as flatpak stuff.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

Starting delay for first time, then smooth sailing. But Flatpak has a major con over Snap - sandboxed system integration of programs.

danielfgom,
@danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

Only using it for Telegram at the moment but it’s been good. A like slow to launch but otherwise works great and integrates with the notification features of Linux Mint.

Other things like WhatsApp, Inoreader, Mastodon, Lemmy I run as a web app using Mint’s brilliant web app tool which makes the web app like and with like a native app.

art,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been using Flatpak applications for a year (I think) and it’s been wonderful. There are a few bugs here and there but overall way less headaches.

I can run my mature, rock solid Debian system and sell have the freshest builds of desktop software that I use.

mcepl,
@mcepl@lemmy.world avatar

I am on MicroOS-based distro, so all my GUI applications are from Flatpak. I don’t see any difference from more traditional distro, it just works.

Secret300,

When it works if works pretty well. When it don’t it’s a pain in the ass

mactan,

it’s my preference for proprietary apps

corsicanguppy,

It attempts to copy binaries onto a system on a manner that avoids the single source of truth used for regular installables. So it invites dependency hell.

Is this the one that seems to need a binary running constantly in the vast in-between times when no installation is taking place? That would be a risk.

Never used it. I worked in OS security and don’t need that stress either at work or home.

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