I would say Tumbleweed is much more beginner-friendly than other rolling releases distros like Arch, as it has a superb team behind it (with enterprise backing from SUSE) and is well-tested by openQA. It rarely breaks and generally require very little manual intervention. The most common issues are related to the proprietary Nvidia driver which may need up to 48 hours to catch up with a new kernel from Tumbleweed. In that case (and in other cases where Tumbleweed breaks after upgrading), just do a rollback with Snapper. There is not much stability to sacrifice by choosing Tumbleweed instead of Leap.
I don't use Leap but AFAIK some packages are kept fairly up-to-date in Leap as well, such as LibreOffice. You can search for a particular software in https://software.opensuse.org/ and see how the version differ in Leap and Tumbleweed. Flatpak is another good way to get up-to-date apps.
For ChromeOS on x86 (Intel/AMD) enable Linux support, install flatpak, and install Steam Link from flathub.org
https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS/
For ChromeOS on ARM, best bet would probably be the existing Android version. Enable Android app support and install Steam Link from the Play Store.
You should at least reference the FAQ which gives a much better reason why you probably don't want to use Flatpak on a server (https://flatpak.org/faq/).
> Can Flatpak be used on servers too?
> Flatpak is designed to run inside a desktop session and relies on certain session services, such as a D-Bus session bus and, optionally, a systemd --user instance. This makes Flatpak not a good match for a server.
Also, since Flatpak doesn't use LSM (Linux Security Module) ... it can not run software requiring privileges. For example, that is why Flatpak can't run Firejail, etc. This is sort of mentioned in this part of the FAQ:
> Is Flatpak compatible with other desktop isolation frameworks?
> In general unprivileged container systems can’t stack, because anything running inside the sandbox does not have the necessary privileges to set up a sandbox, nor does it have the ability to raise its privileges in any way. For instance, Firejail can never work inside Flatpak, because it is setuid. That being said, using multiple sandboxing frameworks at once does not really make anything more secure, so there is little point in trying to nest things like that.
>My partner had to use OpenVPN, Google Drive and Signal
Sorry to hear you had trouble with these workflows. OpenVPN is integrated into the Settings app. You can open up Settings -> VPN and add OpenVPN connections there. Actually, I feel VPN is often easier on Linux than Windows.
Signal client isn't available by default but if you enable all apps on Flathub, it can be installed from the Software store. Hopefully, in the future Fedora will whitelist the Signal app from Flathub.
Fedora comes with flatapak out of the box and the use of it is also somewhat encouraged. But proprietary repos are never enabled by default on fedora. Luckily you can easily enable the flathub repo (https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora/) which should contain every flatpak you might want.
Since you already have Experience using Mint, just stick with it. It makes installing the Nvidia driver easy and has all the packages of the debian ecosystem, and the enhanced compatibility of Ubuntu (minus the snap package nonsense).
As a MS-Office replacement I would suggest OnlyOffice (or the web version of MS-Office, if that is your thing).
The Cinnamon desktop looks a bit dated out of the box, but that can be remedied here. On the bright side, Cinnamon is rock stable and will never randomly break by itself or its extensions.
Steam works best as a flatpak in my experience, Origin and Uplay might not work at all (maybe someone else knows).
Flatpak Frequently Asked Questions:
> Why the name Flatpak? > > IKEA is a world-wide known brand whose success was partly built upon having developed and refined the idea of flatpacking their furniture, which allowed them huge cost savings and efficiencies compared to their competitors. So when we needed a new name for the packaging technology that had been developed by Alex Larsson, a native Swede, we thought that Flatpak would both be a nice play on his nationality and pay homage to the success of IKEA and at the same time send a strong signal about how revolutionary we thought this new packaging technology could be for the Linux desktop.
I can only guess. My best guess is that Canonical was only thinking of Ubuntu/IoT/Touch when they designed it. That said, there are other reasons:
The design predates flatpak or bubblewrap. Canonical had this for their "Click" packaging for their Ubuntu Touch (2011?). "Click" predates "Snappy" by a few years (Dec 2014 first release; flatpak first release circa June 2015) ... and certainly predates bubblewrap. In fact "Snappy" (which is now better know as Snap) is really just a rebranding of "Click" ... for the desktop.
LSM is more secure. It's not just that "Security" is in the name ... it's just that namespaces were designed more to "hide" than they were to "secure". Namespaces were not really a hard/designed access control like LSM. Note also that flatpak is careful to say "sandbox" ... and avoid the word "confinement" and even "container". See their FAQ.
flatpak does not support all applications. For example you can't run firejail as a flatpak. Why? It doesn't support privileged applications (and, if it tried, privileged applications could trivially break the sandbox). Thus some of the features that firejail has (which help to tighten X security) just can't be done in flatpaks. See https://flatpak.org/faq/ and the question "Is Flatpak compatible with other desktop isolation frameworks?"
flatpak is for the desktop ... not the server. ( See https://flatpak.org/faq/ and "Can Flatpak be Used on the Server" ... but also note that it can't run privileged services.)
Maybe you simply need flatpak
It provides an easy way to install zoom, Skype and many others.
I'm on fedora and it works flawlessly.
It kinda containerize these Apps as well.
You can install the apps for your user only or system wide.
I think..
Edited: fixed formatting
It's basically the same thing as snaps (some subtle differences). It's not gnome specific (installation guide for Ubuntu: https://flatpak.org/setup/Ubuntu/ ). And anyway apps like Telegram ( https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.telegram.desktop ) are not specific to any desktop environment anyway.
Thanks for working on this and telling us about it, it looks awesome. Would you consider making this available as a Flatpak, it's a more widely adopted successor to Snap and supports almost all Linux distributions instead of just Ubuntu.
I've opened a GitHub RFE for you here (and also asked about RPM / COPR build but Flatpak would be fine for everyone).
The Ubuntu repos aren't an "app store", developers can't submit their apps to it. Of the two, Snap is probably what you want.
That said, I heavily suggest looking into Flatpak as well, which is, IMO, superior to Snap, and supports most Linux distros.
Flatpak and Snap are trying to do that. They are not distributions of their own, but package managers that work on top of a regular distribution. However their main goal is to be distribution independent packaging system. The security aspect, while there, is a bit of an afterthought and still needing a lot of work.
Because snap is a privileged container, while flatpak only uses only userspace namespace for "sandboxing".
It's a choice ... but note, for example, that you will never be able to run firejail-like stuff as a flatpak [See https://flatpak.org/faq/ and search on "unprivileged containers can't stack" ].
A lot of the packages you mention are available through flatpak or snap. That way you don't have to add repos, the applications are isolated, so they can be less buggy (firefox), and you don't have to deal with codecs and such.
The best way to manage repos, in my opinion is to not have to manage them.
I highly recommend flatpak
You can install apps through gnome software, flathub.org, terminal (you can search for an app by typing dnf search [app name]
). First time you open the gnome software, it will ask you to enable "third party repositories", click on "enable" when you see it. Otherwise, just click the hamburger menu on the top right and choose "software repositories" and enable whatever you like. Also,
- Enable RPM fusion free and non-free to get more apps. Just click the link attached and look for "RPM Fusion free for Fedora 34" and "RPM Fusion non-free for Fedora 34" under "Graphical Setup via Firefox web browser". Click on them one after one, once clicked, it will open in gnome software, then just click install.
- Enable Flathub
Nah, that's not an issue for developers. You compile it once and you can just distribute it. The Unity engine, for example, just exports to "Linux" and not to specific distributions.
It used to be the case that you could screw it up by using libraries that were in "cutting edge" distributions but not yet in the "stable" distributions (Arch vs Ubuntu) or use libraries that are so outdated that even stable distributions don't carry them anymore, but you'd have to go out of your way to do that, and even then with distribution systems like Flatpak that circumvent that whole issue, there is really no more excuse.
Both are quite stable. Pop_OS! has the advantage of it being easier to install proprietary software and drivers out of the box.
Fedora Workstation is more leading-edge but you will need to do some research on how to setup proprietary software and drivers. If you use Nvidia, I definitely recommend installing Nvidia drivers than the built-in open-source ones. Moreover, it isn't a bad idea to enable all of the Flathub apps to be available in the Software store. For more after install ideas check this Fedora magazine article.
Do you plan on making a Flatpak and hosting it somewhere like Flathub?
A notable advantage of Flatpak over snap is that the backend is fully open source, meaning anyone relatively easily can make their own Flatpak repository. AppImages don’t handle updates through a central package manager which for me is a downside.
you can do all of that on Parabola :)
you can install Flatpak (by following the instructions for Arch) and have access to a ton of applications, including Discord, Spotify, Steam etc... https://flathub.org/apps/category/All
Auto-updaters tend to be disabled on Linux as that is what the package manager is supposed to do. You should look into flatpak or snap for managing containerised applications that can be updated independently of your distributions repos and without needing to manually download/build software your self.
I'm sure some people have gotten an impression that these are security tools, but at least for now they are more about compatibility than security. Flatpak front page does not mention security at all among the main selling points.
So have you ever used linux? Because fragmentation, while an issue, can be worked around and modern desktop environments are just as user-friendly as any other OS (and in some ways significantly improved).
The remaining "issues" you listed could be solved by more of the manufacturers releasing linux models. Right now you can buy a handful of models from Dell running Linux out of the box. They've put in effort to ensure that the linux models have solid driver support and treat it as a first-class OS. You have an issue? You call Dell. Learning curve? No worse than going from a PC to a MAC.
Telling users that they should swap out their windows install for linux just because it's objectively better is stupid, because the likelihood of encountering issues is high. It also comes with a lack of support, which as you noted the average user isn't ready for. But if a manufacturer puts their money into it you will wind up with a system that is perfectly usable for the average user with support.
>what drivers i should look into installing
Unless you have a NVIDIA card you don't usually need to install any drivers. The NVIDIA drivers are available through RPM Fusion.
>first things you do when u have a fresh clean install
Install media codecs from RPM Fusion and setup Flathub.
I recommend adding Flathub to your Flatpak remotes if not done already it's basically required to have access to most applications a normal desktop user would want.
You need to enable rpmfusion as some people suggest but I would recommend you Flathub to install apps like Discord or Spotify. Flatpak is installed by default on Fedora you need to enable the repo.
>Library consistency/stability is an issue with native Linux builds, because different distributions do different things - and then users can do nonstandard things on top of that. You should probably try to pack in as many of the libraries you want to rely on into your distributable as you can because otherwise you're going to be chasing down odd behaviors exhibited by an unmanageable variety of environments.
I know that I will surely get some downvotes for this, but making a flatpak could save a lot of headaches, because you shouldn't worry to much about distro compatibility.
Try running sudo dnf update --refresh
from the terminal first.
I'm not sure Spotify is in the RPMfusion repos, if it isn't you might want to enable Flathub too. Go to this link and press "Flathub repository file" button, then run sudo dnf update --refresh
again.
> stable core system (so it works all the time) and with ability to install latest software
Debian 9 with Flatpak, will be supported till June 2022.
Ubuntu 18.04 with Flatpak and snaps, will be supported till April 2023.
CentOS 7 with Flatpak, will be supported till 30 June 2024.
Red Hat 8 beta is already out so I guess you could install that and be supported till like 2029. Also Flatpaks.
So let's say you use Debian, then you just go to https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian/ and all the apps you install from there will be updated independent of the OS.
> you will likely see Flatpak mostly deployed as a convenient library bundling technology early on, with the sandboxing or containerization being phased in over time for most applications.
Flatpak isn't sandboxed by default, according to their faq. You can sandbox them, but by default they aren't.
^^^As ^^^far ^^^as ^^^I ^^^know.
Or it is, I'm confused. Can you link to somewhere they say it is or isn't sandboxed? Or information that shows it is?
> Individual developers can be active in more than one community.
Sure, and the only community in this case is the GNOME community.
Your narrow-because-it-suits you definition doesn't square with how decentralised free software communities work in reality. There is no hard line here. Is OSTree a GNOME project? Is BuildStream? What about Flatpak? And, if not, how can you say these things have "nothing" to do with GNOME?
yes, but who will stop you from tweaking it? Tho I'd not suggest doing so, even more when you can install Flatpak (by following the instructions for Arch) and have access to a ton of applications, including Steam https://flathub.org/apps/category/All
> One question- why do you consider the binding of, let's say, the "music"-folder to another location as a broken way?
If your music folder is on a removable drive, you should set up a fixed mount points under /run/media/<your_user>
and then use a symbolic link in your $HOME. If you have a NAS, you can achieve pretty much the same using CIFS or NFS.
Bind mounts, especially on Linux, have fairly "interesting" semantics when it comes to mount point boundary, and are not easily detectable by tools that rely on traversals stopping at mount point boundary, or to ignore certain directories because they reflect a location on the same volume — as you managed to find out.
It's all fine and dandy to create a sandboxed, read-only chroot using a bind mount for the duration of the lifetime of an application (like, say, flatpak does), but as soon as you start using them in semi-permanent situations for readwrite operations (like you Music collection) things may get hairy fast, and bugs/missing features are not immediately obvious.
You should try running Debian Sid (Unstable). Unstable is already on Gnome 41.1 and is about as vanilla as you can get.
Do not use Debian Testing. The idea that Testing is "safer" or "better" to use than Unstable is a misnomer. Anecdotally, I've been running Unstable for years and haven't had any issues.
It's easy enough to install Flatpaks and use Flathub as your installation source in Gnome-Software.
I have NVIDIA graphics right now and I don't have any complaints, but I still don't recommend NVIDIA on Linux in general.
Yes, that works (sometimes), but it's far better to get them from the repos (which is actually what you're doing with zypper in zoom or zypper in chrome). If some things *don't* exist in the repos, you're better off getting them via flatpak (flatpak setup: https://flatpak.org/setup/openSUSE/)
As Windows is not keeping track of the programs' files itself (e. g. by containerization, see Flatpak as an example on how this can be solved properly), uninstallers are actually written by the publisher of the preinstalled software. There is absolutely no guarantee that the uninstaller is actually uninstalling the software. This is especially true for programs using *.exe "installers" instead of *.msi or *.msix installers.
The uninstaller could actually just delete all user-facing shortcuts and leave the program hidden on the computer. The user would assume that the uninstaller uninstalled the application (as the start menu entry vanished), while in reality it has just been hidden and is still running in the background.
https://flatpak.org/setup/openSUSE/
Has the directions for installing flatpak and adding the flathub repo. After that, go to flathub.org and search for paperwork. There will be an install button on its page.
guide to setup flatpaks
then
flatpak update
to see installed flatpaks
flatpak list
I prefer to install all my flatpaks using the terminal and not the pop store.
top popular flatpaks
Should be. But depends on how you configure it. Basically, it has all apps that you can install by terminal, and then, if you install any app from flathub.org, or follow this:
https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora/
You will also have all flathub apps available.
No need to touch the terminal at all.
Flatpak is the up and coming way to install desktop apps. The app's files are installed in a container with most of its dependencies running in a shared runtime. This is considered more secure and easier to manage vs. traditional package managers like apt. Flatpak started on Fedora but has now been adopted by the other distros.
The need to compile software is generally a solved problem, especially with cross distro packaging solutions like Flatpak. I'm curious what software was it that needed to be compiled?
Which distro are you using? Did you install flatpak? Recent Fedora distros have Flatpak installed by default (i believe). Other distros you need to install.
Ubuntu: sudo apt install flatpak
Go to https://flatpak.org/setup/ and see how to install it for your distro.
The only way I get the behaviour you are looking for, is with the flatpak steamlink client.
https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.valvesoftware.SteamLink
If you don't have flatpak installed there is a howto here: https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian/
straight forward way for you is to setup flatpak and install it from here
and once done simply install ungoogled chromeium by typing
flatpak install com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium -y
You shouldn't have to install that application from source.
You can get that as a snap, so it should be available: https://snapcraft.io/android-studio
It's also available on Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/com.google.AndroidStudio
Flatpak setup guide: https://flatpak.org/setup/
I just tried the Flatpak version myself, it seems to work pretty well, I tested it by running Slay The Spire, although I'm not sure how other more demanding games will be handled.
For anyone trying to set this up, you can find instructions here, and then you can find the command to install Steam here.
Thanks man! flatpak got it to work!
Solution for me
For anyone wondering how. I went to the flatpak website and ran through the commands to get set up that were on this page:
https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian/
Then instead of installing the app from flatpak website (didn't work). I ran the command
Flatpak install bitwarden
It had me type Y for a couple of changes and then the program opened (where before it did install but didn't open).
If you are interested in gaming, check out https://www.protondb.com/
Otherwise https://snapcraft.io/store and https://flatpak.org/ are good places to look for apps that you can use. Ubuntu supports snaps and Mint has Flatpak support. Zorin OS uses both, but you can easily add support for both on any distro.
Firts you need to install Flatpak in your system, you need to follow these steps but skip the step 2
Then there's a web called Flathub where you can find a lot of Flatpak apps, for example Steam, if you scroll down you will find the commands for installing the apps, you just need to copy the text and paste it in the terminal:
flatpak install flathub com.valvesoftware.Steam
Last thing you should know is that Flatpak apps don't automatically update themselves so don't forget to do
flatpak update
from time to time to get the latest version of your apps ;)
CentOS is mostly used on servers, is this still valid today
>Flatpak is designed to run inside a desktop session and relies on certain session services, such as a dbus session bus and, optionally, a systemd --user instance. This makes Flatpak not a good match for a server. >However, the build features of Flatpak run fine outside a session, so you can build things on a server.
Source: https://flatpak.org/faq.html#Can_Flatpak_be_used_on_servers_too_
There is also the option of grabbing the flatpak from Flathub and using that, instead of from the deb or aptitude. It integrates bubblewrap, and helps with some minor sand-boxing.
It's got some caveats though (like no bluetooth support for Steam Controllers, incompatibilities, etc), which you can look into on GitHub. You'd also want to grab the flatpak ppa from flatpak.org, since the version that ships in Ubuntu is what was frozen from Debian.
Who chooses which standard wins?
It's probably not going to be the one you want to win. If we go by which distro has the most money in the Linux ecosystem, then RPM wins, even though RPM is braindead.
Debian has the most stable package managment, in my experience. Arch's AUR is very nice, and would be a nice addition.
There's a blue-million different types of package managers, and every one of them scratches somebody's particular itch.
But there has been work on universal packages:
It appears CloudReady can run Audacity installed via a flatpak. I was able to make a test recording using the laptops mic and play it back. You could try the USB flash drive live boot to test it out, but be aware that dual-boot is no longer supported and it will want to wipe the entire internal drive.
EDIT: You'll want to switch to the dev channel if you want a newer version (v66 currently).
Most server applications require privileges at some point. Ask yourself why sshd runs as root ---> for example you can't manage port 22 without privilege. https://www.w3.org/Daemon/User/Installation/PrivilegedPorts.html .
Regarding your comment about dbus: Presumably you read https://flatpak.org/faq/ where it asks "Can Flatpak be used on servers too?". That's a bit of a different issue ... because "on servers" is different than "running server applications".
I mean if you installed 20.04 just now, I would suggest reinstall
As for uninstalling, I would suggest go for "minimal install" then these apps wont be pre-installed. thus simple to remove.
also you can install flatpaks: https://flatpak.org/setup/Ubuntu
VLC is not present on Fedora's default flatpak list due to their licensing policy. If you want VLC, just add the flathub repo.
Don't install VLC from their website. If you must install it from an RPM, just use RPM Fusion, as that contains codecs for all applications.
Aside from the issues with the flatpak.org web site, I'm still finding the onboarding pretty rough. At the moment I'm resurrecting a Go program I last worked on about 4 years ago. I need to update my tool chain. Go is now available in the Debian repos but the version is dated. I can install directly from a Go website download (.tar.gz) but I really prefer to keep this within a package manager. One of the portable formats seems like the obvious answer.
I followed the instructions on the https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian site and this is what I experienced following the install of the golang package.
hbarta@kweli:~$ go -bash: go: command not found hbarta@kweli:~$ flatpak run go version error: Invalid id go: Names must contain at least 2 periods hbarta@kweli:~$ flatpak list Name Application ID Version Branch Installation Go programming language Sdk extension org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.golang 18.08 system hbarta@kweli:~$ flatpak run org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.golang version bwrap: execvp /bin/sh: No such file or directory hbarta@kweli:~$ flatpak run org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.golang go version bwrap: execvp /bin/sh: No such file or directory hbarta@kweli:~$
This is an install on Debian Bullseye on a Raspberry Pi. I'm trying a snap install on another PC (Intel based, also Debian Bullseye) and it just works.
hbarta@rocinante:~$ go version go version go1.17.6 linux/amd64 hbarta@rocinante:~$
I like that Flatpaks are integrated into the software store (and that works) but I'm reluctant to commit to something that's going to require research to use.
And I'm thrilled that there is work being done on a universal Linux application format. I think that's going to be a huge factor in moving Linux ahead on the desktop.
Or, you know, just install Flatpak. Heck, Ubuntu Budgie makes that part of the Recommended section in the Ubuntu Budgie Welcome app (which is hilarious since the app itself afaik is in Snap), automating the install, if you don't want to touch the command line.
You can run discord on it. There is a flatpak for it. https://flatpak.org/ That is how you will install other programs on the deck. Tho it will be available in an app store like setting, tho everything there is free.
If you’re coming over from Windows and want a familiar layout, I recommend the KDE or Cinnamon spin. The heart of the OS is unchanged besides the package manager and the different applications that ship with the different DE’s (ex. Dolphin file manager for KDE vs. Nemo file manager for Cinnamon).
If you install either spin, you’ll want to enable the RPM Fusion repos by following this tutorial. You’ll also want to install the GNOME Software Centre on the Cinnamon spin since it doesn’t ship with a graphical software centre like the GNOME or KDE versions.
You can install it by running sudo dnf install gnome-software in the Terminal.
Lastly, enable Flathub so you can get access to any other commonly used app (ex. Spotify) that isn’t in the Fedora/RPM Fusion repos.
Welcome to the Fedora family. It’s a great distro.
For flatpak, start here
https://flatpak.org/setup/Void%20Linux/
Then you can search the repo with 'flatpak search foo' - hopefully reddit doesn't mangle this too much
$ flatpak search chromium Name Description Application ID Version Branch Remotes Chromium Web Browser The web browser from Chromium project org.chromium.Chromium 97.0.4692.99 stable flathub Chromium B.S.U. Fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter net.sourceforge.chromium-bsu 0.9.16.1 stable flathub ungoogled-chromium A lightweight approach to removing Google web service dependency com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium 97.0.4692.99 stable flathub
Install with 'flatpak install <app ID>'
$ flatpak install com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium
Run with 'flatpak run <app ID>'
$ flatpak run com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium
looks really nice. If it was opensource I would definitely use it. Howeverm it's not packaged for any distribution and running random shell scripts to install freemium programs isn't my thing.
If you want any linux user to even consider using you package, take a look at flatpaks - https://flatpak.org/. Its basically a package manager that works for most linux distributions and make your program easier to discover if you publish on flathub.org . I prefer comand line utilities, but I can see more casual users who work with pdfs all the time, wanting to have a tool like the one you are offering.
You can install Flatpaks through the terminal. First you need to enable Flathub though because Zoom isn't available in the default Fedora Flatpak repo (also called a "remote" in Flatpak terms), so go to flathub.org/setup/fedora, follow the instructions there to enable, then type "flatpak install zoom" and see what happens :)
Was going to suggest the same.
https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian/
https://flathub.org/apps/details/fr.handbrake.ghb
I'd previously found that the version in repo for Debian and openSUSE intentionally broke CC by changing requisite packages, and nobody could work out helping me compile on Tumbleweed, so when the flatpak came out I wiped my Mint partition.
If you want to run Lutris in a container, Flatpak is probably the easiest way to go.
https://flatpak.org/setup/Void%20Linux/ https://github.com/flathub/net.lutris.Lutris
The Lutris Flatpak is still in beta, but it works quite well in my experience.
Don't try to use ubuntu PPA's on debian.
I'm guessing you are trying to install OBS?
If so install it via flatpak would be my suggestion as the flatpak is going to be the offical package for OBS.
The easiest and safest way is to install Minecraft on top of Flatpak. Easy as follow this steps https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS/ then you are ready to get some app https://flathub.org/home included Minecraft
From the Flatpak FAQ...
> It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Since a desktop application would require quite extensive changes in order to be usable when run inside a container you will likely see Flatpak mostly deployed as a convenient library bundling technology early on, with the sandboxing or containerization being phased in over time for most applications. In general though we try to avoid using the term container when speaking about Flatpak as it tends to cause comparisons with Docker and rkt, comparisons which quickly stop making technical sense due to the very different problem spaces these technologies try to address. And thus we prefer using the term sandboxing.
Flatpak is a packaging format that is designed to run on many different distributions. This simplifies the overhead of creating multiple packages for multiple distributions. It also gives software developers full control over their dependencies, for consistency and the ability to patch or tune libraries beyond what a distro might offer.
The instructions here show how to integrate flathub into Ubuntu Gnome Software. https://flatpak.org/setup/Ubuntu/
Once flatpak is installed and the flathub repository is added as the link above demonstrate, then you can install apps from flathub like https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.gdevs.GDLauncher or through Gnome Software
Are Ubuntu-based distros okay? If so: Mint, Pop, elementary, Zorin ...
Otherwise what about using flatpaks for the stuff you really want up-to-date like your browser? https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian/
I don't have a Chromebook with Crostini on it but I think your chance would be improved by installing Gnome Boxes with Flatpak to get newer version which also includes its dependencies:
https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS/
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.Boxes
For the newest version of Flatpak, follow the direction after "A more up to date flatpak package is available ....".
you enable Flatpak for your Distro Via --> https://flatpak.org/setup/
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.fritzing.Fritzing
Shows you exactly the command line commands to install it via the Flatpak tools.
Or you can click the Big Blue 'INSTALL' Button at the top of the https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.fritzing.Fritzing Page After you enable flatpak support.
Pop!OS uses Gnome. Their pop shop is a fork of Elementary software app.
Try adding the flathub repo and restarting the computer.
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Flatpaks and Snaps are mostly all in one place.
While you can have their own sites for Flatpak, pretty much all are on Flathub. Flathub has instructions for setting up on different distros.
Snap packages are all on the snap store.
Appimages, debs outside your distro's repos, and PPAs have their own sites for each application. I'll note that there's a list of appimages here, but the only time I briefly used one, I downloaded it from the app creator's website, so I don't think it's necessary to use the above.
This is exactly what flatpak is trying to solve. A package and distribution system that works across Linux distributions.
You have this concept of runtimes and applications. A runtime is a set of libraries, whatever libraries. There are common runtimes that you can choose to use or you can create your own. You build your application against a runtime and it will keep working in all Linux distributions where flatpak is supported (most of them, except some obscure distributions). All the major distributions support flatpak, so is basically no issue.
You can checkout flathub, a store based on this technology: https://flathub.org
It also introduces portals (think Android/IPhone permission system where you can allow or disallow an application to access paths, devices or features of the OS) but that needs work to be useful in a practical manner. Right now it's kinda obscure and has a subpar experience. But you can get an idea of how it can work by checking out Flatseal, a GUI app that can manage these permissions.
Hmm that's weird, thanks for the warning. So the switch enables flathub inside GNOME Software, but only a few packages, not all of them? Wut.
I want the entire flathub.
So does that mean I should not enable 3rd party repos inside GNOME Software, and instead manually add the full thing with the usual command? This one: https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora/
I was specifically unable to set up 2FA rather than using a key for openVPN. I'm not sure if I was a victim of a bug in GNOME's VPN manager, or just my own ignorance.
The setup on windows by comparison was even easier, at least in this particular case.
> Signal client isn't available by default but if you enable all apps on Flathub, it can be installed from the Software store. Hopefully, in the future Fedora will whitelist the Signal app from Flathub.
Is that actually maintained by Signal though? Ideally for that kind of messenger most people would want to use a version published by the company itself. The "publisher" just points to a random github page.
Flathub was going to be my backup option, but I was a little more familiar with copr. It'd be a lot nicer to have something in the repos or an officially-sanctioned (by Signal) flatpack.
Probably https://flatpak.org if anything is the solution. Nix can be a solution, but its a very complex package manager and just using nix-env
barely touches on what it can do
For the average linux user flatpack is a better option
I don't know how it is on Mac and Windows, but in Linux you can run Thunderbird via flatpak container - where you can further restrict which file areas the mail client has access to (flatseal is the app for managing such privileges).
If you then encrypt your harddrive, the availability of data is fairly well contained.
In regards to security in general, you usually consider all remote services compromised by default and harden the element you can truly control. For mail, what you can truly control is the hardware you have physical access to.
Another recommendation:
- Use flatpaks instead of snaps. They are well integrated with gnome software and work great in fedora. Add flathub so you can search and install its flatpaks easily from gnome software.
- In Gnome Software, when an application has various sources, like for example from the fedora repository, from fedora's flatpaks (yes, fedora packages a few in fedora's flatpak repo), and from flathub, you can choose which one to install from in a dropdown menu on the headerbar. If no menu exists, you can find the source below the description, in Details.
- Install Tray Icons: Reloaded extension if you need a system tray for some programs.
- Can't think of anything else :)
From what I understand, you can't combine desktop isolation frameworks (e.g. flatpak and firejail).
source: https://flatpak.org/faq/#Is_Flatpak_compatible_with_other_desktop_isolation_frameworks_
Now they give the reverse example (running firejail from within flatpak) but they also go on to say that:
> using multiple sandboxing frameworks at once does not really make anything more secure, so there is little point in trying to nest things like that.
I think the github links you mentioned are using a regular system-install of Zoom (e.g. from here) rather than a flatpak version (2nd link shows path /opt/zoom/ZoomLauncher
- the /opt
folder is generally where third-party system programs get installed to). If you want to use the flatpak version, which is probably fine to do, then you can just configure the sandboxing settings via flakpak itself.
Discord is available as a snap or flatpak. Assuming Nvidia for gpu (you don't say) see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia.
To install steam run sudo apt update && sudo apt install steam-installer
OpenKJ recently switched to Flatpak for distribution. Here's how to enable Flatpak support
I'm a KJ who uses this to run my gigs. I am not the author, just mentioning it as I recall you can easily get Flatpak apps running on Chromium.
You probably can if your model chromebook has linux app support. You can install Steam using flathub. https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS/. Rimworld has a native linux build, so that should not cause any problems.
check the version of the packages, flatpaks might be more up to date.
or if the version does not matter as much stick with the .Deb
Info about flatpaks
then there's snaps and appimages to add more to the fun!
https://www.fosslinux.com/42410/snap-vs-flatpak-vs-appimage-know-the-differences-which-is-better.htm
Sorry, I'm not really sure. You should visit the Flatpak matrix room or #flatpak libera.chart IRC channel and try asking there.
Also, try to see if there's an updated Flatpak version for your distro, it's a bit outdated. There should be apt repositories for Ubuntu and Debian with new releases, see flathub.org.
have you tried installing Minecraft via Flatpak? Flatpak includes newer libraries that are isolated from the rest of your system.
Also, you might want to follow the setup guide if you don't have Flatpak yet.
Flatpak is simpler and more convenient (here's Firefox). You can also use its base technology, Bubblewrap, directly.
BTW, just to confirm:
1) I would install flatpak by typing "sudo apt install flatpak" and following the rest of the instructions here.
2) I would then type:
flatpak install flathub us.zoom.Zoom
Is that right?
Ah I tweaked the webserver a config a bit so it doesn't show up as plain text when flatpak isn't installed. I think you need to run through the flatpak installation steps for manjaro first:
I recommend you to install flatpak instead. It is package management for Linux, whit a big advantage that the dependencies are packaged within the app it self.
So with this you won't run in to this problem u have.
Here is the setup process: https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS/
And from here you can get apps: https://flathub.org/home
Apparently this page also says Flatpak is installed by default and prompts to use the Pop Shop to install images.
https://flatpak.org/setup/Pop!_OS/
This isn't recommend but if you trust the source where you got the Flatpak file from you can install it manually with this command
flatpak --user install ./LibreWolf-*.flatpak
I am not a developer, but I can tell you that Flatpak will be better than Snap for cross-distribution packaging. While snaps are officially cross-distribution, at least one distro (Mint) tries to actively prevent its users from installing snapd, and on some other distros it works poorly or not at all. The issue with Flatpak is that it's oriented more toward graphical apps, but it can probably work for something like this.
You already have the most cross-distribution way to install, and that's to put your source code in a Git repository under a free license and provide compilation instructions. Ideally, a way to use it without running an install script would be available also (i.e. a portable executable). Since it's just a shell script, this shouldn't be all that difficult.
Lastly, the openSUSE Build Service is pretty useful for getting packages out to a large number of distributions using their distro-specific package format (using DEBs, RPMs, PKGBUILDs, etc).
>2. Chinese test in app store along with English And when I hover over firefox installed from appstore on the dock its showing Chinese
The packager hasn't fixed the naming yet, the temporary solution is editing firefox-nal.desktop
in /usr/share/applications
(it will revert after update) or installing firefox using flatpak https://flatpak.org/setup/Deepin/ -> sudo flatpak install firefox