Is there a downside to Flatpak?

0485@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 172 points –

Basically title.

I’m wondering if a package manager like flatpak comes with any drawback or negatives. Since it just works on basically any distro. Why isn’t this just the default? It seems very convenient.

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For me it's lacking in user friendliness. Go easy on the downvotes if I'm doing it the hard way.

  • Flatpaks aren't really single-executables. You have to use to the flatpak command to run them.
  • I can't just say flatpak run firefox, I have to use the full app-id which could be quite long.

Yes, I could make this simpler with scripts or aliases but how hard would it have been for Flatpak to automatically do this for me?

I'm using KDE and when I download a flatpak it automatically creates a .desktop file. I think gnome does this too if I'm not mistaken. I do have to restart or relogin for it to put the file there but that's not that bad IMO.

I think I've been having an issue with the Steam Flatpak where after updating, the .desktop file breaks. If not, my icon is broken for different reasons. Either way, I've been running Steam through the command line for ages.

I'm on Endeavour xfce and the .desktop files are just there immediately. I never even knew this wasn't the case on other systems

I don't put anything on my desktop but if I put Firefox in my krunner (alt-f2) box the flatpak shows up right away after installation

I agree, tho trivially solvable with aliases and Desktop app definitions, but still an extra step.