Originally posted by STiAT
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Do read these posts of mine. Appimages have on going issues causes by OS host runtimes differences. Yes you are right flatpak and snap are both attempts at solving the runtime incompatibility issue. Steam with the steam runtime is another attempt to fix this problem.
Yes some people go as far as saying you should not use appimage because the issues they have is not worth the time.
Lot of ways people do need to take a serous look at Appimage design and the libcapsule work. I do think both libcapsule and appimage could be integrated with each other and make a solution that support different to host runtimes.
Like currently you cannot make a appimage and say using the steam runtime instead of the host runtime. There is no flatpak/snap application to run appimage applications please don't think this is impossible valve has done work with flatpak to make this kind of stuff possible for the applications steam provides.
From my point of view AppImageLauncher need to be extended to be able to take advantage of runtimes provided by flatpak at least. So in the case X appimage does not work with Y distribution provided runtime yet the user has flatpak they are still able to use the appimage by having it run in flatpak and use the flatpak provide runtime.
Appimage able to run on host without a sandbox has advantages at times due to reduced sandboxing but this has issues with host runtime yet flatpak you must always be sandboxed and you have predictable runtime so no host runtime problem. There is a best of both worlds solution that could be built where a user is able to choose if application runs on host or inside flatpak using a launcher. Yes if the host runtime is giving application trouble set like a windows compatibility mode on it to force it to run in flatpak .
Yes the best of both worlds option would be look at what valve has paid to done with libcapsule and flatpak and have appimage solutions be able to take advantage of it.
I see a lot of problem here comes from flatpak, snap and appimage being uses as a pick 1 option. Reality we need a pick 2 at least. Yes the pick two would not have to result in those maintaining appimage applications making more appimage applications. Instead it would just some support software so that end users have choice of runtime between host , flatpak and possible others so finally getting on top of the incompatible runtime problem that has plagued appimage since forever.
Easing desktop integration does not help if the application does not run due to host runtime issue. Yes the host runtime conflict problems is the big problems holding appimage back and will keep on holding appimage uptake back until its addressed. The technologies exist to address the problems yes valve for steam funded development of them because steam store runs into all the same problems.
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