this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2024
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Flatpaks won't get their libs updated all at once by just updating a library. This can be very bad in cases like bugs in openssl. Instead of just updating one library and all other software benefiting from the fix, with flatpaks, you need to deal with updating everything manually and waiting for the vendor to actually create an update package.
I'm not 100% sure about this. Flatpak has some mechanisms that would allow to manage dependencies in a common fashion.
Most Flatpaks depend on the Freedesktop Platform runtime, or GNOME/KDE runtimes, which are derived from it. This contains several hundred common dependencies and librarires programs need, like
gccandpython. When you update the runtime (change it from22.08to23.08in the manifest), all the dependencies are updated too. Many simple applications don't depend on many more dependencies than are available in the runtime. Some...have more complicated dependency trees.But counterpoint: the developer will update the dependencies when they are known to work properly with the application. Upgrading GTK3 to GTK4 in the GIMP flatpak will just break the application. Same thing with Krita and the dozens of patches to libraries it depends on. If you upgrade the application in the name of security before it's compatible, all you end up with is a broken application. Which I guess is more secure, but that's not helpful to anyone.
I wonder how much work would be needed to make a "FreeDesktop Linux" complete OS, with the runtime + whatever it needs beyond that. Then when you install a flatpak, it's just like installing, uh, I didn't think this through tbh.
Well, if you think about it, the Freedesktop Platform is essentially a distribution. And Flatpak used to be called "xdg-app". If you've got all your graphical applications installed via Flatpak, with GNOME, Systemd, glibc, GRUB and all the core dependencies only packaged for the base system (essentially Arch's
corerepository), that's pretty much a Freedesktop OS.Hey, maybe we could use Snaps for the base system and Flatpaks for the userland? Or are these the kinds of ideas that get people stoned?