this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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Flatpak is not just an alternative packaging format. One of the key advantages is that it provides a predictable runtime environment that is independent from the rest of the system. Sometimes an application needs a particular version of a dependency (called dependency pinning, very common practice in development) and can't rely on the system having the correct files. It also isolates the application from issues stemming from environment variables and the "global" filesystem.
It also gives developers greater control over packaging. Because of this isolation, they don't have to rely on downstream packagers to manually adapt the software to the distro's available packages (potentially introducing bugs).
One infamous example is Bottles. The project is officially distributed as flatpak, but OpenSUSE wanted to distribute it as native binaries. They had to use an outdated, broken version and caused a flood of user reports for issues that were not Bottles' fault. More in this thread and open letter: https://github.com/bottlesdevs/Bottles/pull/3583
This. Once you know how to use it it's way, way more preferable than dealing with all the problems that come from how scattered the Linux ecosystem is and how little control you as a dev had about app distribution. Development and debugging gets more predictable, people can get (app-related) fixes faster, it's hypothetically more secure (if Flatpak gets their shit together) and with the payment backend for Flatpak repos they (Gnome Foundation & KDE e.V.) work on it finally becomes properly viable to distribute paid apps. All the different hacky ways that are currently circulating (which are often outdated, only work on certain distros etc.) to offer paid applications are honestly obnoxious and expensive to maintain. Not to mention Flatpaks work great on immutable distros.
Just hope they gonna moderate things properly. Flathub & perhaps a few others have to place themselves as the de-facto standard marketplace to define and uphold all the important values the Linux community is organized around once it gets commercial. Not to do so would be a phenomenal mistake and end up in enshittification once the tech bros start targeting Linux.
So yeah, Flatpaks, Snaps and (maybe) AppImages are probably the future for most common end-user distros. Sorry for the small tangent.