this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
84 points (97.7% liked)
Linux
48655 readers
438 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Even disregarding the trust issues with Flatpak packages made by random people: Packages often contain versions of some libraries in order to not depend on the distro's. If there are security vulnerabilities in a library then the distro maintainers usually fix it very quickly (if not go find a better distro) and it's fixed for all packages on your system that depend on it. But this doesn't apply to Flatpak where the package providers have to update the libraries in their own package - and the track record isn't great. Sandboxing doesn't help if that vulnerability leads to wiping your home directory.