Clasen: Continuing To Push Modularity On The Linux Desktop

[CrystalGamma]

I must agree with the first comment on the blog post. I don't see how this is any more modular than the package management systems we have. if anything, it has coarser granularity …

[jaxxed]

I do actually have some concerns about Flatpak that I'm still curious about. For instance, reading their FAQ, there's this:



For instance, if I wanted to run a Teamspeak server, would that not be an valid application of Flatpak? If the point is simple sandboxing, I don't see how sandboxing a daemon is considered an potential misuse of Flatpak. Can someone explain this to me?

I believe that they are referring to running flatpak on a server, not running a server/service (like teamspeak) as a flatpak package. You may have a server that you don't want to use logind/user systemd session, which means no flatpak.

[liam]

I must agree with the first comment on the blog post. I don't see how this is any more modular than the package management systems we have. if anything, it has coarser granularity …

I agree that's it's, at a minimum, counterintuitive use of the word but I THINK this, and its implications, captures his thought:

By decoupling the runtimes from the OS and by making them available in the same way as the applications, we make it possible to have applications that can run on different distributions, regardless of the library versions that are included in the OS.

A flat pack can, in principle, be as small as a single executable, I'd imagine. The biggest difference is that the format should allow for certain guarantees that most package managers aren't capable of providing.

[sharkwouter]

This is interesting, they are now creating what is essentially a new package manager which works cross distribution. One which allows installing multiple versions of libraries and sandboxing applications.

[Cerberus]

This is interesting, they are now creating what is essentially a new package manager which works cross distribution. One which allows installing multiple versions of libraries and sandboxing applications.

Ubuntu already has this, it is called snap packages and they are around for a while now on Snappy Ubuntu Core and arrived on the desktop with 16.04 LTS, Mozilla said they will offer Firefox as a snap in the future along with regular formats. Snaps could probably work on other distributions. I believe they work on any desktop environment. They proved effective on Snappy Ubuntu Core with vendors choosing Snappy Ubuntu Core for range of products, from drones to robots and IoT.

It will be interesting to see how flatpak compares to snap on desktop.

[pal666]

Ubuntu already has this, it is called snap packages and they are around for a while now on Snappy Ubuntu Core and arrived on the desktop with 16.04 LTS,

it seems you have missed "works cross distribution" part

Snaps could probably work on other distributions.

like upstart and mir, lol

[s_j_newbury]

I'm very sceptical about how this will have a positive effect the F/OSS software ecosystem. It's great news for closed source software on popular hardware platforms x86/ARM, allows binaries to be distributed and used without too much risk of compatibility or security concerns. The only indirect positive outcome for F/OSS that occurs to me, is it may cause developers to take memory utilisation more seriously since multiple versions of application frameworks and libraries in memory are going to cause a lot of additional memory pressure and bloat. We'll see, I guess.

[Cerberus]

it seems you have missed "works cross distribution" partlike upstart and mir, lol

Upstart worked on other distributions. Snaps are not dependent on Mir, they work with X.org therefore they could work on other distributions, I see Canonical's snapcraft in AUR.

[starshipeleven]

Ubuntu already has this, it is called snap packages

Afaik Snap packages lack an open repository implementation. Or am I mistaken? I've yet to find data on how to set up a Snap package repo.

If it is like this it's either Canonical servers or Snap applications will ship their own autoupdater system. (kill either of this with fire plz)

Canonical: bringing Windows user experience on linux, one feature at a time.

[unixfan2001]

Ubuntu already has this, it is called snap packages and they are around for a while now on Snappy Ubuntu Core and arrived on the desktop with 16.04 LTS, Mozilla said they will offer Firefox as a snap in the future along with regular formats. Snaps could probably work on other distributions. I believe they work on any desktop environment. They proved effective on Snappy Ubuntu Core with vendors choosing Snappy Ubuntu Core for range of products, from drones to robots and IoT.

It will be interesting to see how flatpak compares to snap on desktop.

flatpak predates Ubuntu Snap by quite a bit. It's not a particularly original concept either. Before that we already had AppImage and before that we had ROX' application folders.
None of which has really caught on.