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A small SteamOS beta update has been released and it adds in Flatpak support. Along with a Linux Kernel bump and security updates.
From the changelog:
Valve don't actually use Flatpak, so I do wonder what they're planning with including it in SteamOS. This will hopefully at least make it easier for people adding in extra software, since they can just install a Flatpak, so it could turn out to be pretty useful.
A small, but interesting update. Showing once again that SteamOS is clearly not dead, as some like to claim. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
From the changelog:
ValveUpdated Linux kernel to 4.11.12, security updates, and added flatpak and its dependencies to the repository
Valve don't actually use Flatpak, so I do wonder what they're planning with including it in SteamOS. This will hopefully at least make it easier for people adding in extra software, since they can just install a Flatpak, so it could turn out to be pretty useful.
A small, but interesting update. Showing once again that SteamOS is clearly not dead, as some like to claim. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: ripperThis is not about steam runtime - flatpak has a concept of runtimes, so there should be no problem of flatpaked game to rely on the steam runtime. It would even work outside of steam - for example GOG could offer a flatpaked game relying on steam runtime, and as long the steam runtime is just a collection a opensource libraries, GOG or the game dev could host it (so that they don't rely on a different party), the flatpak installer would download it, and everything would work ootb. The only problem could be with proprietary bits, like libsteam (or whatever it's called) - they might not have rights to distribute it, so the game would need to work with it missing. This is actually one of the reasons why valve could considering allowing flatpaked games - the release story would be much simpler for developers - just a single format could be used in Steam, or on any other linux distribution, regardless of however it is distributed (directly, other store, etc). But they say they're not even considering that atm.
For the user, flatpaked games don't probably matter, because hopefully in the future the whole steam will be served as a flatpak to the user. And then all games executed from it are still sandboxed (which is probably the biggest advantage for the end user).
Their stated goal of allowing easy install of third-party apps on SteamOS is quite exciting, because it could mean more widespread use of flatpak between proprietary software makers (think Netflix, Spotify, Skype, etc). All linux users would benefit from that (everyone could install that, not just SteamOS users).
A flatpaked game could also still in a Steam runtime, but it would be pretty pointless. As far as the game is concerned they both exist to containerize the application and ensure it runs the same on all hosts systems. Plus then you'd have your local libraries, the flatpak libraries, and the steam runtime inside of flatpak libraries... if you were going to use Flatpak to distribute Steam games it would only make sense if it also replaced the Steam Runtime, which is why I thought it was relevant to point out that they weren't doing that.
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Quoting: marcusHow people think that concepts such as Flatpaks are better than SteamRuntime is beyond me.Flatpak has support for runtimes, so if Steam made their runtime publicly available for anyone to use, it's exactly the same as using steam runtime in a traditional sense. Plus you get sandboxing, which limits the security holes impact even more.
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