I like Flatpaks. They integrate fairly well, they can be used on a variety of different distros, you can install them without root permissions, and they’ll often “just work”, even when the same apps installed through your system’s normal repos have issues.
However, if they have one significant drawback, it’s that they’re a pig on resources. They use a lot of storage, and when you’re on a resource-constrained system, they’ll use more RAM and generally run slower than apps installed from the normal repos. (inb4 anyone says “unused RAM is wasted RAM.”)
Mic drop! This will cause a stir!
As a professional nix shill, I can proudly tell you every flatpak I ever wanted to use is packaged in nixpkgs
Agreed, much prefer running apps via nix. Although I did have to fall back to flatpak install the
bottles, but that is a bit of a special case where the software explicitly requires itself to be sandboxed or behaves less as expected otherwise.
I like both flatpaks and appimages why does everything have to be a victory and defeat
Because it’s nice for devs to have a single package type to build per OS
Why can’t they do that already? Just choose whichever one you want it’s trivial for me to run whichever as a user
Just not snaps.
AppImage and flatpak are fine though
Whats wrong with snaps? My only “issue” with appimages is i tend to leave them in my downloads folder and lose them
The snap store is a shit show of security issues.
Forced migration to snaps.
Performance issues.
Proprietary back end.
Slow to install
Slow to start
Eat up RAM
Eat up disk space
They screw up access to devices.
They automatically update themselves without user confirmation.
Fuck snaps. Fuck Canonical.
My issues with snaps are:
- The server software is closed source and centralized
- They create many block devices that can slow down booting the PC.
I didn’t realize, damn.
snaps are essentially ubuntu-only
I have an ~/app directory for appimages
Ty for both
There’s an appimaged daemon you can install that will manage them, and it watches a bunch of folders to integrate appimages with xdg and whatever window manager you’ve got.
~/Applicationslooks like an easy pick, or~/.local/bin.Appimages you decide to keep you can just move there!
Why do you keep appimages? I don’t do that and now I’m wondering if I do something wrong. But I try to install from repos as much as possible.
The appImage is the program. If you don’t keep it, you don’t have the program.
I’ve used one or two tools that only distribute for my system as an appimage or as source code.
I can’t always be bothered to set up a compilation environment or deal with removing dependencies.
I only use one or two regularly, but it’s nice to have them integrated!
I prefer from the distro’s repos, then source, then flatpack, then appimage. Sometimes you have to take what you can get!
That’s why I whenever I download an appimage that I intend to use somewhat regurarly, I typically make a .desktop file for it in /usr/share/applications so it shows up in my app menu or rofi or dmenu or whatever and I don’t have to go looking for it. It also helps to have a folder you toss them all into
Correct
Recently I wanted to uninstall $thing. Couldn’t via the package manager. I had forgotten that it wasn’t a native package. So what was it? *scratches head* Flatpak, snap or Appimage? Aw damn, it’s an AppImage. Now where did I put the binary? *scratches head*.
I present to you: https://flathub.org/en-GB/apps/it.mijorus.gearlever
I think it’s really funny that it’s a flatpak used to manage AppImages
I know right?! ;)
Maybe you would like appimagelauncher. It allows you to define a directory for storing your appimages and you just put them in there and you can automatically launch it from the system menu as if they were installed apps. It also makes removing them easier, since they’re all in the same directory and you just remove them and the shortcuts get deleted as well
The fluxer appimage will ‘install’ itself into /opt/ without your knowledge. I think because it’s essentially an electron package similar to stoat, standard notes and discord, large parts of it can self-update without needing to bump the actual package version, but this is really shitty behaviour considering what appimages are designed to do.
In ~/Downloads/
Uhh…should probably get yourself in order because that sounds like a you problem to be completely honest
If you can run it, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of clicks to find it.
It’s not that big of a deal to package in both flatpak and appimage.
Yeah, it’s called .deb
Well that’s not gonna work on rpm based distributions now is it
How is that my problem
How is that my problem
Well let’s break it down…
You thought:
Yeah, it’s called .deb
Was an acceptable response to:
Because it’s nice for devs to have a single package type to build per OS
Your problem was your stupidity.
But now your problem is everyone knowing about it.
Jesus fucking Christ, it’s like you had your sense of humor surgically removed.
Ah yes, the ol’ people are annoyed at the actions I chose to take, so I’ll call it a joke defence
I think you’re the one lacking a sense of humor if you thought your comment was funny instead of making you look like an ass.
Neither Flatpaks nor AppImages can provide those.
It goes a long way to simplicity from both a user and dev to have only one package type to deal with and distribute.
I’d agree with that sentiment, but at least for me, if we went with all flatpacks, i’d be losing the one ability that I like about appimages, which is as a one-time-use type of “installation”. They’re kind of like those windows EXEs that you could just run in place without needing to install. very useful for stuff like raspberrypi imager where I don’t need to keep it around much
appimages also allow some sort of portable apps you can carry around. Very useful for dealing with no internet scenarios. I also use appimages for things iI use very rarely and don’t want to bother to have them being updated regularly along with the system
Come on, you know if a dev doesn’t offer an appimage, someone is going to shit on them for it.
why
why does everything have to be a victory and defeat
there can only be one standard.
But what if it doesn’t cover my specific usecase?
Compile from source
Damn, I was hoping to lead you into the relevant xkcd :p
I thought of it too :)
I fucking love appimages. I dont have any issues with Flatpak. I just like appimages more and i can get them for almost all of my stuff. So idk if flatpaks won. But i also dont care.
I love flatpaks and your attitude
AppImages are great! It reminds me a lot of how software is packaged on MacOS and I think it hits that perfect trifecta of powerful, simple, and easy to use
AppImages integrate better, but despite including roughly the same amount of overhead bullshit as a flatpak, have been less reliable for me overall. Flatpaks are too isolated, even when they’re supposedly installed properly.
What the fuck happened to distro packages? .rpm, .deb?
why
I use flatpak and app images for different uses.
App images are like portable exe files for onetime use apps. Like Rufus
Flatpaks are like installable exes from the devs website. Used for apps I want to used and use again on my machine.
Yeah Flatpacks aren’t really “competing” with Appimages the way they are with Snaps.
Flatpaks are only “competing” with a small portion of what snaps do.
Oh ok I didn’t realize that. I’ve personally never encountered a situation where I needed a Snap because a Flatpak lacked functionality.
Snaps are more comparable to nix, really. They can provide system services and even your kernel. Flatpaks and AppImages are only really about distributing desktop apps, but the rest of the system still needs to be provided another way.
i dont believe a single person in this post
Good for you?
AppImages are completely different thing versus Flatpak and Snap.
I use Appimage and flatpack, but not snaps.
I’m not sure why you reply this to me directly.
He is not using Snaps, though.
Sure (myself neither). I just don’t understand why he replies that to me, as if it is an argument to make a point for or against my reply. And seeing that some people downvoted me confuses me even more. I just said I don’t understand why he replied to me. Why would anyone downvote without explaining?? What is the reason people got it the wrong way? Really I’m just confused.
Sure. Streaming and DVDs are also completely different things but both deliver media to your TV. The consumer chooses what the consumer wants.
The comparison does not hold up, because for watching films it does not matter on what medium it is. But for applications it has huge implications for maintaining versions, updates, creating packages with or without runtimes and dependencies and a repository and so on, that work differently on operating systems and so on. This goes way beyond just the user choosing the format.
I don’t think I’ve made my point very well.
From the user perspective, all they want is an app.
They choose the minimal effort way to get that app. If flatpaks are what is distribute in that icon that says App Store, that’s what they go with.
If we ever want to actually increase Linux usage in the mainstream that is the attitude we will have to take.
You’re right, but you’re right in the wrong way. Everything you say is true, but try explaining that to the average user of Windows.
Do tell… genuine question, what would you consider 2 significant differeces?
Flatpak is a central repository where an application is installed in a sandbox and cached. It can be updated from that central repository.
Snap is a mounted filesystem containing a repository and is stored locally. It is not sandboxed. It cannot be updated in part but is overwritten in whole. It is distributed by individual app maintainers, not a centralized repository.
Comparing AppImages to Flatpaks is a bit of a stretch.
Agreed, I think AppImage has a strong future
I prefer appimages, it feels much more “open” than flatpak ever will.
Flatpak: install flatpost and flatseal.
Appimage: Download appimaged appimage to ~\Applications and run once.
then
Flatpak: Go to site for cool software I heard of, see it’s flatpak with a link on the page. Click link, wait for flatpost to open, wait for flatpost to update repos, get cool software and possibly another copy of mesa and gnome compat stuff, then head to flatseal to fix drive/device permissions as needed.
Appimage: Go to site for cool software I heard of, see it’s an appimage, download said appimage to ~\Applications, appimaged automatically loads in a desktop entry and we’re done.
As far as updates, all the appimages that are in active development that I use, offer auto-updating when I open them, plus I’m not reliant on a centrally-controlled repo of the packages (which if it dies, takes all updates with it).
I feel appimage would be an easier adoption for people fresh to linux, as it follows the same model as windows or macos (download executable, install app), even for the initial setup of appimaged.
And either way, there’s no “winner” here, if we’re playing that game, native installs still win. Every distro supports (and uses) those by default, except for ubuntu, who has money on pushing snaps.
They aren’t really in competition, also AppImages don’t update as easily.
native install wins
If you’re not using Arch, native install typically means outdated version.
For example all Ubuntu 24.04 based distros like PopOS and Mint ship neovim 0.9 from 2023! 0.11 is the current version. What’s the reason to keep a package that’s not part of the core functionality of the operating system on such an ancient version?
Snaps are kind of the right idea. Provide a stable base system with current version user apps. It’s just not well implemented.
I don’t think Flatpak “won”. Flatpak makes sense for it’s use, but AppImages also make sense for other uses, and even Snap has it’s place.
It just happens that Flatpak has become the more “popular” method on many desktop Linux set ups, as Flathub integrates well into software stores and the shared dependencies can be more efficient (if you use a lot of Flatpaks).
AppImages are great for self contained portable apps with minimal local dependencies needed, and especially if something is pretty much “feature complete”. They aren’t quite as convenient in terms of keeping them updated or integrating into desktop environments seamlessly (they can be if you visit AppImageHub and install the AppImageLauncher - doesn’t work for me thought - but even then they’re not really as well integrated into desktop environments as Flatpaks have become).
If you were to use lots of programmes, AppImages would potentially take up more space than the same apps in a Flatpak setup because AppImages do not share dependencies while Flatpaks can (if dependencies are the same version). But AppImages are also ultraportable and can run on an even broader range of distros and setups than Flatpaks. AppImages don’t require any installed tool locally to run, while Flatpaks need Flatpak installed. Both Flatpak and AppImage are bloaty compared to direct installs from a distros repos, but thats a trade off for their benefits (containerised, easily deployable across different distros etc).
Snap is proprietary particularly around snapd’s hardcoded dependence on Canonical servers despite being otherwise open source. So it’s not really been embraced by most distros outside the Ubuntu ecosystem, and even then there are Ubuntu derived distros that deliberately remove Snap. Snap does have its strengths in the server space (which Flatpak is not designed ofr), but Docker is the more popular system for this. Snap is still used “widely” in the sense that Ubuntu is widely used and Snap is its default, but outside that ecosystem Docker is much more extensively used (and probably on a lot of Ubuntu servers too). Snap in the desktop set up is also slower than Flatpak due to how it works, which adds to the perception they’re “worse”. Still Snap is convenient in the Ubuntu server space for deploying software.
Flatpak and AppImages aren’t going anywhere. Who knows with Snap; probably not going anywhere?
they can be if you visit AppImageHub and install the AppImageLauncher - doesn’t work for me though
I use AM/AppMan with a local install. So far, it’s been pretty good.
On Linux I don’t really care who “wins” or loses" as we just have options.
The only 2 things I personally care about is which of the options have the most consistent and trustworthy developer, and which one is licensed or closest to being licensed under AGPL-3.0.
“Which xyz is better?” is the last of my concerns as my disgust for “proprietary”, AI-product/service, and NVIDIA knows no bounds.
All that being said;
I’m glad people love Flatpaks, app images still exist, and that people dump snaps like it’s the plague.Some stuff aint on Flatpak, have to keep couple appimages around
app images need to not be called app images. first time seeing it it sounds like some macos thing. but even still I don’t see why they get compared so much to flatpak and snap when they are completely different.
They serve the same purpose: Install software, that’s not in your distro‘s repository.
I like appimages and will use them over flatpak. I will use both, but I will never use snap.
My preference for flatpaks is based upon I can further lock out network access for those apps that I don’t want having network access. Just gives me another layer of network access prevention using flatseal. For the paranoid side of me :)
Have a couple apps can only use appimages, using with gear lever is just great & easy
Both work great though
