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KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

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Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many different versions of OpenSSL are running on my laptop right now? Who can say? That's the beauty of flatpak: if you sweep the problems of software management under a big enough rug, they go away and never bother you again.

Flatpak has a concept of shared base layers, so if you update frequently you might notice 'org.gnome.Sdk' or whatever getting updated. This is a way to handle lots of the most popular shared dependencies. Besides, sufficiently quality minded projects always wind up vendoring all of their dependencies anyway. There's a reason Chrome has their own fork of everything down to the compiler.

i gotta say, if chrome stands out to you as a shining beacon of quality, i'd hate to hear about what software you consider bad

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#133

I haven't been the biggest fan of flatpak and generally wish software would either be packaged as an rpm or an AppImage, but the OP makes a pretty strong case for why it's a good idea (because existing options are too niche, and have no ability to incentivize developers who need to get paid for their work. This leads to Linux desktop having far fewer applications available to them compared to windows and mac.) I do h…

> This leads to Linux desktop having far fewer applications available to them compared to windows and mac.)

There's far fewer applications because there's a very tiny market share compared to these two OSes. Not because of the lack of payment systems.

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#134

Richard Brown, who's been working on this problem for 10 years at Suse, says he was wrong in 2017. Flatpak is now the clear way to go, if you care about security, app updates, licensing, and multi-distro support (runtime dependencies). https://ftp.fau.de/fosdem/2023/UA2.114%20(Baudoux)/container...

> security

Erm...

> we also reduce the ability for users to scrutinise the source in the Flathub build system that was used to build their application

I don't think so

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#135
post #38

Meanwhile Ubuntu is making sure that none of its flavours has flatpak installed by default. Smells like that old MS attitude to me.

Ubuntu is Microsoft's "favorite" distro, they do seem rather made for each other.

The Azure dev tools on Linux i have tried are all Snap only, or a tar file and maybe an rpm/deb. At the moment they seem to avoid Flatpak like the plague.

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, GNOME is so user-hostile that I'm actually a little impressed. Personal example from trying GNOME out recently: I have an external webcam, which means I need to move the GNOME panel clock since it's in the top middle of the screen (and thus blocked by the base of the webcam). You would _think_ that would be easy, but you have to get an extension just to move the clock! Apparently each panel "widget" (this may…

They're not really user-hostile, they just have limited development resources and making a polished interface for editing the positioning of top bar widgets would be way too much work. If you want to try things on your own, that's what unofficial extensions and tweaking tools are for.

There are several full time paid developers working on it which is plenty of resources (AFAIK more than KDE). They are not only actively user-hostile but also community-hostile. Every library or project they have under their umbrella receives updates all the time that only serve GNOME and potentially break all software dependent on it that are not part of GNOME (e.g [1]).

1.: https://github.com/thestinger/termite

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question; why do you still use Ubuntu then? By now, Snap is such a fundamental part of Ubuntu that it begs the question whether Ubuntu is right for you if you want to avoid it. Why not use a derivative or upstream that makes different choices?

I don't personally remove snaps but if I did I'd still use Ubuntu for the sole reason that it is somehow the only distro that gets fonts right. I don't know what it is but on every other linux distribution font rendering looks horrible, and I could never figure out how to reliably fix it.

It’s most likely not the rendering but the font itself. The Ubuntu font might be the best looking one around. It can be installed on other distros easily. Some have it packaged in their repositories. Switch fonts, turn on full hinting and you’re in business.

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#138
post #9

I'm an Ubuntu user and the first thing I always do in a new system is removing the Ubuntu Store, completely removing snapd, and installing the Flathub Store.

Honest question; why do you still use Ubuntu then? By now, Snap is such a fundamental part of Ubuntu that it begs the question whether Ubuntu is right for you if you want to avoid it. Why not use a derivative or upstream that makes different choices?

Ubuntu is still a better experience than Debian on the desktop, many many packages are built and tested for Ubuntu and not debian.

Ubuntu also as better hardware integration ( drivers ) and more modern kernels. AS a matter of fact it has many kernel for deferent usage.

People use Ubuntu because it works just fine out of the box, you don't need to install a third party non free drivers to get your wifi card to work. I still have nightmare with debian because they used to not ship proprietary drivers so you would have to cary a USB stick in the datacenter with drivers on it to make network cards working.

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#139
post #27

Opinions on Flatpaks/snaps notwithstanding, it's encouraging to see KDE and GNOME collaborating on projects like this. IMO desktop GNU/Linux has benefited greatly from moving away from offering LXDE/LXQT/Mate/Enlightenment/Cinammon flavors and towards a more digestible subset (GNOME only, GNOME/KDE/XFCE, etc) of polished desktop environments. Pipe dream, but it would be incredible to see all of the passionate, talent…

As a long time Linux user I have mixed feelings about that.

I'm not really against it, but I don't use KDE or Gnome (or any of the others in your list) and it concerns me that people might start thinking of those as "being Linux". I'd hate to see a future where "We support Linux" means KDE or Gnome.

On the other hand, I have to admit I'm not really sure what that would mean. I guess only having "Flatpak" as an option would be a bummer, but I don't see that happening with the distros I use.

Re: KDE and GNOME seeks $100k to turn Flathub into a Store for the Linux desktop

#140
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question; why do you still use Ubuntu then? By now, Snap is such a fundamental part of Ubuntu that it begs the question whether Ubuntu is right for you if you want to avoid it. Why not use a derivative or upstream that makes different choices?

Ubuntu is an African word which means "Afraid of Debian" Seriously though, just install Debian. It's not hard, the netinstaller may be text-mode but it walks you through the simple steps one by one just like Ubuntu's GUI installer. Anybody who's comfortable using Ubuntu in the first place should be able to get through the Debian installer just fine.

no, this is not true. Debian requires manual configuration for some major parts to this day.
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