Using flatpak in Elive ---Is it really the future?

[triantares]

On looking at what flatpak does exactly and I'm actually quite impressed.

There are some pros and contras ..... where the main contra is that: Packages can get to be very big in size because they have to bring along their own dependencies, depending on what they need.
On top there are some safety safeguards needed as @Thanatermesis already stated here:

Package managers & extra software

Recently I felt in love with gnome-software interface, easy to use, much more friendly, intuitive, and very like as how a software manager should look like... Even better, it supports flatkpak and "snap packages", but after to read on internet, only flatpak looks to be worth, it is something really well designed, with sandboxed applications and stuff So I tried it with that plugin and I was able to install even more software than the ones we have (we have already 50k packages available, do we …

The idea of delivering an application binary that will run on all distros is well implemented and easy to use (for newbies and veteran users alike) but would require some actions if to be properly implemented on Elive.
I think it's a good way to add needed 3rd party apps that don't show up in the standard Debian repos (like in my case "opencpn" for navigation).

So if we do decide to support flatpaks we would need:

1. A software-store for flatpaks that is guaranteed safe and compatible with Elive, like the Debian repos.
2. Some changes to Elive (mainly xdg-adherence) i.e that it will be able to show and run the installed flatpaks through the desktop-menu/dock etc.

Of course anyone can already install flatpaks on Elive but it isn't very new-user friendly ATM, requiring sometimes commandline acrobatics to search, install and run the apps. This doesn't have to be but it will be extra work again to remedy that, admittedly.
Installing and using "gnome-software" is an option but it obviously is not EFL oriented and may cause issues or not run at all.

I'd be interested to hear more thoughts on this.

[Thanatermesis]

check the third part of this howto, "other methods: flatpack" entry on: How to install software / packages / applications, the correct way

[triantares]

@Thanatermesis

check the third part of this howto

exactly that is why I was thinking of creating a
|---list---|---database---|---app-store---|
that has tried and tested apps that work well on Elive....or at the least, added comments as to what doesn't work.

Just ranting that these apps are no-good isn't enough and definitely not in every users best interest, either. Especially because the "gnome-software" centre is solely populated by flatpaks.....and install-able on Elive through the repos.

[TheTechRobo]

I also really like AppImage. It and Flatpak are really simple ways for people to make their own cross-distro packages.

@triantares

exactly that is why I was thinking of creating a
|---list---|---database---|---app-store---|
that has tried and tested apps that work well on Elive....or at the least, added comments as to what doesn't work.

Kind of like Lutris / ProtonDB?

[triantares]

In the mean time this article I stumbled across makes sense too.
Plenty of food for thought and certainly a good reason to not jump in blindly.

https://ludocode.com/blog/flatpak-is-not-the-future