Is Flatpak safe and better?

[darky2000]

is installing programs from flat pack is safe and better ?
like i wanna install discord is flat pack good to install from than originall repos ?

[tiefling]

I have a priority order that I use when installing software, if it helps…

• Manjaro Repos
• Flatpak
• AUR
• snap (If I really want to hurt myself)

[mithrial]

@darky2000

is installing programs from flat pack is safe and better ?
like i wanna install discord is flat pack good to install from than originall repos ?

Generally, no.

[Aragorn]

I myself use neither FlatPak nor Snap, because such applications take up a lot more space on your drive and they don’t integrate with the rest of your operating system, which goes against the UNIX philosophy.

However, I can understand that in the event of certain proprietary applications like Discord, which disables itself whenever an updated version is released until you update it, people would prefer either a Snap, a FlatPak or an AppImage.

So, if you really need things like Discord, then it would probably be better to install that as a Snap or as a FlatPak, but for everything else, you should stick to the repositories, because that software has all been tested by the team community.

[megavolt]

@Aragorn

because that software has all been tested by the team.

Erm, honestly, I would question that. What do you mean by “tested”? To be honest, it is unclear how the team actually test software. Would be a good approach to show the public, maybe by a blog post, how they do that.

[Aragorn]

I didn’t mean to imply that every single package in the Manjaro repositories was rigorously tested by the team. Considering the amount of packages in the official Manjaro repositories, that would be an insurmountable task.

So there are packages in the repositories for which Manjaro relies on the experience of Arch users. After all, the packages we take over from Arch have gone through all three of the stages in Arch itself — Unstable, Testing and Stable — before they end up in Manjaro Unstable. And from there, they move through the Testing branch — and then they are patched where needed — before landing in the Manjaro Stable branch.

Most of the package testing is done by the community of course, but the Manjaro team does decide on what to include in the distro repositories, which implies that they would have at least given the most important stuff a quick evaluation before adopting it in Manjaro Unstable.

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Note: I’ve edited my previous post.

[jrichard326]

Snap and Flatpak ( and all associated with it) are some of the first things I remove on a fresh install for the reason(s) outlined in the posts above. I prefer Appimage and use very sparingly. Same with Wine, only small footprint, standalone software (QuickPar and WinSCP).

[Aragorn]

@jrichard326

Snap and Flatpak ( and all associated with it) are some of the first things I remove on a fresh install

Ditto.

@jrichard326

Same with Wine,

Ditto again. And Steam. Out of the window with that nonsense.

[darky2000]

how can i remove snap from my manjaro i installed 2 apps from snap and now they keep crashing and not working perfectly but flatpak is fast

[jrichard326]

I usually remove both with, in terminal:

sudo pacman -R snapd snapd-glib flatpak libpamac-snap-plugin libpamac-flatpak-plugin 

Ditto on Steam and a whole list of stuff that I don’t want or need that may or may not get replaced with software that I prefer

[megavolt]

@Aragorn

because that software has all been tested by the team community.

@Aragorn

Note: I’ve edited my previous post.

Killjoy. I thought there would come now a blog post on how the Manjaro Team test software.

[darky2000]

thx now im snapless and i feel cool

[fasto]

You will encounter a lot of people who look disfavorably upon Flatpaks in this thread, myself included. However, I think it would be disingenuous not to point that that a significant portion of Linux users, if not the majority, like them, and many think they are the future of application distribution. The reason why you are only encountering the former here is due to the culture of Manjaro: it attracts the kinds of users who also happen to dislike Flatpak.

As for Snap lol… very few like them.

@Aragorn

Discord, which disables itself whenever an updated version is released until you update it

[HowTo] Handle Discord Updates

Difficulty: ☆☆☆☆☆ Every time Discord gets an update, we get one or two or a dozen posts about the situation. This tutorial is intended to be a quick link to drop in every time this happens, to make things quicker and easier for everyone. Why isn’t Discord already up to date? On Linux, the software that you use comes from online databases called repositories rather than the creators of the software themselves. The repositories that Manjaro uses are managed by the Manjaro Team, who are unfortun…

[Aragorn]

@fasto

However, I think it would be disingenuous not to point that that a significant portion of Linux users, if not the majority, like them, and many think they are the future of application distribution.

Yes, but those are not people who know and understand UNIX. They are people coming from the Microsoft, Apple and smartphone worlds.

[omano]

Flatpak can be really handy, for example current version of qgis had issues on the repository version, and using the Flatpak version was the solution for my friend who needed to use this application.

I personally use only repo packages, then the AUR if needed, and occasionally I can start an AppImage or Flatpak for a specific reason.

[linux-aarhus]

@megavolt

I thought there would come now a blog post on how the Manjaro Team test software.

I would like to know that too - I have tested the packages I built - the code I have written - but it is impossible to test each an every package.

The vast majority of packages comes from Arch

• many those are built from source
• if I were a maintainer I’d assume - if the source compiles it works
• push the package to a testing repo
• if someone find a bug they complain or the wiser ones create an entry in flyspray
• the bug may be fixed or it is considered not important
• push to release
• Manjaro imports the release package to unstable repo

For Manjaro packages built from source - like the kernel or Manjaro specific software

• if it compiles - it works
• push to unstable repo
• When I was ISO maintainer - I’d install the package on their workstation or if smart in a VM
• When I was ISO maintainer
  • I’d build the ISO
  • test the ISO and the functionality
  • rebuild package
  • rebuild ISO
  • test again
  • some repeating of above
• When I was ISO maintainer
  • I’d check if the package breaks something obvious and perhaps if I knew about an issue which should be fixed - the presence of such fix is verified
• if someone find a bug they comment in unstable release announcement
• the report is checked and if possible verified
• it get’s fixed either by the dev if it is a Manjaro specific package or by upstream Arch
• if no one complain - snap to testing - and hope someone catches the bug
• if no one complain - snap to stable
• then all hell break loose
• usually because of the custom packages and themes

[tiefling]

I really wish I could, but I have 1 app which I need for work which only seems to be available as a snap, which really gets my goat. If it wasn’t for that I’d be snap free.

Flatpak is far more ingrained - managing without flatpak cuts you off from a lot.

[openminded]

Sometimes you have no choice other than snap or a flatpak app, even if installing the latter means pulling half of “Fedora” on top of Manjaro lol. AUR is not reliable at all, take fbreader, for instance. It has been working until recently when Arch did something to QT6 builds and boom - now it fails to start, so snap/fp is the only option.

[tiefling]

To be fair, the opposite is also true. I spent several hours yesterday banging my head against a wall as GitKraken kept locking up, crashing and failing to launch repos.

I then realised I’d installed it from Flatpak and not the AUR, as I usually do.