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this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I'm a fan of the Flatpak trend. The latest version of Linux Mint has some interesting additions to how things are presented, as far as "verified" and "not verified". Basically their app installer program lets you know if a particular Flatpak should be treated with caution, sort of like downloading a random .exe with Windows.
I recently installed Manjaro with KDE Plasma, and I'd like an easier way of getting Flatpaks out of the box with it. Their solution is to install Discover alongside their own app installer. So now I have two different GUI programs to open if I want to research something to install.
I actually disagree with a couple of changes Mint made regarding Flatpaks. Not showing reviews for unverified Flatpaks especially.
I get it, they want to punish unverified Flatpaks to give them a kick up the arse to get verified. But it also means that if something nefarious is going on with the unverified Flatpak, and Mint hasn't taken it down yet, users can't see reviews that might alert them to the app being dodgy.
I know of a number of times I've went to download an app on android that I've heard of only to see recent 1 star reviews saying stuff like "this has been bought by an ad company and filled with data harvesting and ads", or "this has been bought by a Chinese government-linked company, beware". I want to see shit like that, verified app or not.
It's a similar issue to YouTube hiding dislikes making it difficult to quickly see whether a video guide is helpful/legit or not.
There's also them disabling unverified Flatpaks by default. I can see why, but at the same time it's perhaps hypocritical considering any software they package also isn't packaged by the original software creator, and yet not only is that available by default, but it's also never marked as unverified.
That said, I'm not that fussed about this one considering that if you're using Mint in the first place, you probably trust Mint/Canonical and their repositories.
Good point about the reviews. I forgot about that part.
Yeah I definitely don't want to sound negative on Flatpaks or on Mint, though.
Flatpaks are my preferred way of packaging apps, and while I've moved on from Mint for my own usecase (I like Gnome so Fedora made more sense to me), I always install Mint on other people's old machines because it just works, is similar to Windows UX, doesn't require you to be on top of updates very much, and has pretty sane defaults.
The idea with flatpaks are flawed by design as everything can't be there. I want to install the latest version of these there: kde Plasma, wayland, Nvidia drivers, and the Linux kernel. It will never be available there. Better to go back to the drawing board on how to fix this in a good way.
A kernel flatpak? That'd be interesting.
I would be less against flatpaks if you could do everything with it. But it seems to try to slow multiple problems at the same time and failing.
I think it is time to actually come up with a better design solution.