Appimages are nice, self-contained apps and I do like that they’re super simple to install and run. Downside is that they’re often a bit bigger in size and not all apps can be packaged as appimages. Oh and the guy who runs many appimage repos is a dick.
Snaps have good security, OS-integration (on Ubuntu at least) and can run CLI apps well. Downsides are that Canonical controls the technology and repositories, which end users may enjoy because higher curation of apps, but the system is less open and reliant on Ubuntu for its existence.
Flatpak imo is the best compromise. It’s an open standard which works well across various distros without hassle. Downsides are that it’s not super integrated into your OS very well and it’s larger than a native app. For one, I have a couple flatpak apps that don’t respect my system’s themes yet.
That being said, these are issues being worked on by flatpak, and being worked on openly! I prefer to go with Flatpaks where I can, but AUR and Pacman when those aren’t available. If I only need an app to do one thing and then can discard it (ie. flashing a USB with balena etcher) appimages are nice because they don’t leave an impact on the host system.
The biggest problem with Flatpaks and Snaps is the sandboxing; I’ve had so many sandbox related issues, specifically around trying to get system libraries talking to IDEs. I wish developers could choose to not sandbox specific things, one size does not fit all!
True the sandboxing sucks, but it’s good security practice – It just needs to be implemented better. Even now you can sort the issues with sandboxing via flatseal.
Like, Flatseal is awesome but it could be better integrated into DEs by default - especially ones like GNOME and KDE that focus on the less technical users. I think Flatpak contributors are working on a lot of the pinch points with Flatpak UX.
Some sensible defaults wouldn’t go amiss so you didn’t have to manually configure apps later on. Or a mobile-like permissions system for accessing these resources. Beyond my pay grade though.
Appimages are nice, self-contained apps and I do like that they’re super simple to install and run. Downside is that they’re often a bit bigger in size and not all apps can be packaged as appimages. Oh and the guy who runs many appimage repos is a dick.
Snaps have good security, OS-integration (on Ubuntu at least) and can run CLI apps well. Downsides are that Canonical controls the technology and repositories, which end users may enjoy because higher curation of apps, but the system is less open and reliant on Ubuntu for its existence.
Flatpak imo is the best compromise. It’s an open standard which works well across various distros without hassle. Downsides are that it’s not super integrated into your OS very well and it’s larger than a native app. For one, I have a couple flatpak apps that don’t respect my system’s themes yet.
That being said, these are issues being worked on by flatpak, and being worked on openly! I prefer to go with Flatpaks where I can, but AUR and Pacman when those aren’t available. If I only need an app to do one thing and then can discard it (ie. flashing a USB with balena etcher) appimages are nice because they don’t leave an impact on the host system.
The biggest problem with Flatpaks and Snaps is the sandboxing; I’ve had so many sandbox related issues, specifically around trying to get system libraries talking to IDEs. I wish developers could choose to not sandbox specific things, one size does not fit all!
True the sandboxing sucks, but it’s good security practice – It just needs to be implemented better. Even now you can sort the issues with sandboxing via flatseal.
Like, Flatseal is awesome but it could be better integrated into DEs by default - especially ones like GNOME and KDE that focus on the less technical users. I think Flatpak contributors are working on a lot of the pinch points with Flatpak UX.
Some sensible defaults wouldn’t go amiss so you didn’t have to manually configure apps later on. Or a mobile-like permissions system for accessing these resources. Beyond my pay grade though.