Flathub continues growing with over 2 billion downloads recorded

I just wish software managers would be more transparent about who packages various flats. I've seen a lot of talk when people tell others to just install flats, and they think they're official and that's just the way to do it. Sometimes it's even true.

Speaking as someone who is running a system primarily powered by verified Flathub flatpaks, I really like the experience. With less free time in my life, I have really come to appreciate the simplicity that Flathub brings to the table (particularity avoiding dependency issues and offering rollback functionally for buggy software releases).

That being said, there are many "mainstream" apps that really need verified status (my current wish list includes VLC, GNUCash, Steam, Blender, Inkscape and Nextcloud Desktop). Hard disk space wise, flatpaks haven't been too bad either. For 61 apps (and their runtimes) I'm only looking at 21.9 GB. Which in comparison to the games I run, this is nothing.


Last edited by Numeric on 24 June 2024 at 7:54 pm UTC

I don't try to use flatpaks unless it's the best option.

Nice. It's good to see that Steam Deck owners are also tinkering around with the desktop. This will help let people know that Linux desktop is now far more usable than most people think.

I have a mixed feeling about Flatpack. I have the impression it tries to replace package repositery whereas the problem is that distribution repository should be extended.
We don't need flatpack or snap or whatever for Mozzila, Gnome or KDE softwares. The FOSS software from highly trusted source are the easiest things to maintain on distribution repo. Flathub should be mostly commercial or more obscure FOSS project and software store app should be able to mix distro software when it makes the most sense and packaged software.

I have a mixed feeling about Flatpack. I have the impression it tries to replace package repositery whereas the problem is that distribution repository should be extended.
We don't need flatpack or snap or whatever for Mozzila, Gnome or KDE softwares. The FOSS software from highly trusted source are the easiest things to maintain on distribution repo. Flathub should be mostly commercial or more obscure FOSS project and software store app should be able to mix distro software when it makes the most sense and packaged software.

for distros like SteamOS and Bazzite and every immutable distro they are essential. I am actually making a distriso based on bazzite with all the uneeded bloat removed and its heavily flatpak focused. Flatpak has alot of pain points I get it which is why I am hoping to solve a bit of them in my distro lol. Themes work out the box in mine and working on having sane default permissions so things just work hopefully.. so far on my machine which I daily drive it it works great.


Last edited by tohur on 25 June 2024 at 12:33 pm UTC

Nice. It's good to see that Steam Deck owners are also tinkering around with the desktop. This will help let people know that Linux desktop is now far more usable than most people think.

I've mixed feelings about that.
At one side it's a sign of failure, at the other it's a driver for improvement.
Pros:
A. Everyone tinkering on Linux makes the whole ecosystem slightly better, just by trying to improve their own experience and gaining expertise, information and sometimes even code to improve it(whoo FOSS collab).
B. It shows to them the value of controlling your own system.
Cons:
A. These people don't tinker for fun, but to run the software they want to run, which indicates that the out of the box experience is still subpar.

I have a mixed feeling about Flatpack. I have the impression it tries to replace package repositery whereas the problem is that distribution repository should be extended.
We don't need flatpack or snap or whatever for Mozzila, Gnome or KDE softwares. The FOSS software from highly trusted source are the easiest things to maintain on distribution repo. Flathub should be mostly commercial or more obscure FOSS project and software store app should be able to mix distro software when it makes the most sense and packaged software.

Agreed, and maybe I'm just old and bitter about things changing, but I strongly blame the popularity of rolling distributions (Looking at you, Arch). Not that rolling distributions are a new concept or anything, but they didn't used to be so mainstream/popular. Frankly, most people never needed the latest and greatest packages/ABIs at all times, and repositories were awesome -- and used to be a hugely touted benefit over the competition (Windows).

Frankly, with snaps, flats, and appimages I dare say Linux has become kind of a pain in the ass lately. Even debs/rpms are rarely distributed via repository anymore, often just being resources alongside things like appimages in github releases. The only things that aren't annoying these days are base system packages, because they're updated and distributed via repositories.

Nice. It's good to see that Steam Deck owners are also tinkering around with the desktop. This will help let people know that Linux desktop is now far more usable than most people think.

I've mixed feelings about that.
At one side it's a sign of failure, at the other it's a driver for improvement.
Pros:
A. Everyone tinkering on Linux makes the whole ecosystem slightly better, just by trying to improve their own experience and gaining expertise, information and sometimes even code to improve it(whoo FOSS collab).
B. It shows to them the value of controlling your own system.
Cons:
A. These people don't tinker for fun, but to run the software they want to run, which indicates that the out of the box experience is still subpar.

Not exactly. We are not talking about people tinkering; we don't know how many people are tinkering around with the desktop. This graph shows you people downloading new apps from Flathub, which means they are people looking beyond what can be found in the Steam store. They could be installing emulators, open source games, or maybe some desktop apps, and that has nothing to do with the experience being subpar. Quite the contrary, this is a positive experience where you are not locked down like is the case with consoles.

I like Flatpak because it allows me to have access to the latest versions of software without adding PPAs/third-party repositories, or potentially breaking my system.

If I want the latest versions of emulators like Dolphin, PCSX2, or RetroArch, it's as easy as installing the Flatpak. Likewise with Firefox, or the various KDE software.

Nice. It's good to see that Steam Deck owners are also tinkering around with the desktop. This will help let people know that Linux desktop is now far more usable than most people think.

I've mixed feelings about that.
At one side it's a sign of failure, at the other it's a driver for improvement.
Pros:
A. Everyone tinkering on Linux makes the whole ecosystem slightly better, just by trying to improve their own experience and gaining expertise, information and sometimes even code to improve it(whoo FOSS collab).
B. It shows to them the value of controlling your own system.
Cons:
A. These people don't tinker for fun, but to run the software they want to run, which indicates that the out of the box experience is still subpar.

Not exactly. We are not talking about people tinkering; we don't know how many people are tinkering around with the desktop. This graph shows you people downloading new apps from Flathub, which means they are people looking beyond what can be found in the Steam store. They could be installing emulators, open source games, or maybe some desktop apps, and that has nothing to do with the experience being subpar. Quite the contrary, this is a positive experience where you are not locked down like is the case with consoles.

I will take to your positive outlook.
I could make a point that when people install emulators they're tinkering out of necessity and thus showing my point, because they are adding functionality to their device that wasn't in the default behavior to be able to do the usecase they bought the device for, but that is arguing semantics and I really want you to be right.
So @sarmand is right Steam Deck users are using flathub, because they're enjoying the freedom of FLOSS and not out of necessity.