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109

Flatpak is only for graphical apps - Flatpak's biggest flaw? (iusearchlinux.fyi)

submitted 10 months ago by Libretto@iusearchlinux.fyi to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I love Flatpaks, the programs are nicely separated so they don't interfere with each other. They also don't have flaws like Snap's low performance or Nix's complexity.

But being limited to only graphical apps seems like a real drawback. If one wants to use Flatpaks as their primary package manager there have to be some awkward workarounds for cli programs.

E.g., the prime Flatpak experiene is supposed to be on immutable distros like Silverblue. But to install regular cli programs you are expected to spin up a distrobox (or toolbox) and install those programs there.

Having one arch distrobox where I get my cli programs from will not work, as the package entropy over time will get me the very dependency issues that Flatpak wants to solve.

So what is the solution here? Have multiple distroboxes and install packages in those in alternation and hope the boxes don't break? Use Nix alongside Flatpak? Use Snaps?

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[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

flatpak run org.gimp.Gimp image.png vs. gimp image.png or even xdg-open image.png. "Mildly unwieldy" I suppose but a massive pain in the ass in practice. I can't believe they thought that it was a good idea to require all that and provide no way to create a script in /usr/local/bin or even .local/bin.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

echo 'alias gimp="flatpak run org.gimp.Gimp"' >> ~/.bash_profile

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 32 points 10 months ago

Oh my God I never thought of that! /s

What a pain in the ass to require me to maintain a set of aliases for everything I install. Great user experience.

[–] optissima@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

And the other 125 flatpaks I have?

[–] beta_tester@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

https://github.com/DLopezJr/fp may help until flatpak solves the usability issue

[–] Thann@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Flatpak should export mimetypes so xdg-open should work if there isn't another handler registered

[–] AProfessional@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You mean it already does. (“should” can be vague)

[–] Thann@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

I believe so. (Depending on how your OS packages flatpak)