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?

  • DrRatso@lemmy.ml
    2·
    11 months ago

    Don’t like them, they are annoying to deal with - CLI naming is odd, files are stored unintuitively and if your whole system is not on flatpak, chances are the sizes are going to be absurd. One of the main reasons I wen’t with Arch is Pacman + AUR, never have to install a flatpak, because the package management is so good.

  • Smokeydope@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    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a flatpak which is the latest stable which is a godsend when the versions available through package manager are years out of date.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.

  • zoey@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    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.

  • stella@lemm.ee
    1·
    11 months ago

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

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

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    Flatpaks are great. I do wish flatseal was part of the flatpak standard. I want an android style permissions menu

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
    01·
    11 months ago

    Mixed bag…

    It’s only really an option for GUI applications which I intend to launch from a GUI which is a real turn-off as a long-time CLI user. I often want to run something like gimp file.ext from the CLI but can’t (easily) with a flatpak.

    I also find the permission system gets in the way quite frequently as well. Like I was using some graphics program from a flatpak (I forget which - rawtherapee or maybe digikam) and it could only see certain directories. I get the security restrictions but it was a bit of hoop-jumping to try to figure out how to get that to stop, and in the end I just installed the snap…