Tux Machines

Will Flatpak and Snap replace desktop Linux native apps?

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 11, 2023

today's howtos

Megi’s PinePhone multi-distro image is getting PinePhone Pro support (test many mobile Linux distros with a single microSD card)

I've been using desktop Linux since before many of you were born. Seriously. I first ran it when I downloaded the source code from Linux kernel developer Theodore Ts'o's MIT FTP server in 1991. So, when I say it's time to wave bye-bye to using package managers such as apt or dnf and replace them with containerized package managers such as Appimage, Snap, or Flatpak, I do have a clue about what I'm talking about.

Before going into why, let me give you a quick refresher on application installation on Linux. In the beginning, there was the source code. We downloaded it, built it, and compiled it. You can still do it that way today, as in this example of how to install Node.js v8.1.1 to your Linux desktop.

Most people don't do it that way because it's a pain. Only developers build from source code these days. The vast majority of users use package managers. For users, they're easy whether you use a GUI interface such as Linux Mint's Software Manager or a shell-based package manager such as DPKG, Pacman, Yum, and Zipper.

Read on

↺ Read On: The Register UK

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