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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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What are your thoughts on Flatpak/Flathub? (flathub.org)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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How does it stack up against traditional package management and others like AUR and Nix?

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[–] clemdemort 1 points 8 months ago (5 children)

It's the easiest solution to packaging software for Linux that doesn't mean it's good, In fact fhe way no dependencies are shared absolutely wrecks my hard drive and makes everything super long (downloading, updating, etc...).

Where it shines is security but to be honest do you really need an open source app to be in it's own secure sandbox?

I vastly prefer nix and I wish packaging stuff for it was easier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

As other have pointed out, saying that "no dependencies are shared" is a very missinformed take, given that sharing dependencies as runtimes is an integral part of Flatpak's structure. But what makes it even funnier and more obvious that you don't know what your talking about, is that you than cite Nix as something you "vastly prefer" when Nix actually deals with dependencies in a very similar way to Flatpak. From the official site:

You can have multiple versions or variants of a package installed at the same time. This is especially important when different applications have dependencies on different versions of the same package — it prevents the “DLL hell”.

In both Flatpak and Nix, apps will only download a different version of a dependency when they need it. This ensure that, instead of breaking, the app will work the same on any system (be it an old stable Debian or a bleeding edge Arch system), without requiring devs to create monkey patches that they have to maintain as things evolve. It has the potential to immensely reduce the burden on app devs and maintainers, and make it a lot easier to make apps for Linux.

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