Canonical recently announced that it will no longer ship Flatpak as part of the default installation of various official Ubuntu releases, in line with mainstream Ubuntu distribution practices. Flatpak package format has gained popularity among Linux users due to its convenience and ease of use. Canonical will focus solely on its own Snap package management system. This decision angered some community members who felt the distribution made this decision without considering its users.
The announcement was made on the Ubuntu Discourse forum, where Philipp Kewisch, Community Engineering Manager at Canonical, said:
As part of our joint effort, Ubuntu flavors have made a joint decision to customize some of Ubuntu’s default packages: the future Flatpak package, as well as packages to integrate Flatpak with Software Center. The respective packages will no longer be installed by default in the next release scheduled for April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have been using Flatpak are not affected by the update as the flavors include a special migration that takes this into account. If you haven’t used Flatpak yet, you can use software from the Ubuntu repositories and the Snap Store.
For what ?
During the announcement, Kewisch said the decision stemmed from a desire to “improve the Ubuntu experience for new users while respecting how existing users personalize their own experience.” Ubuntu prioritizes deb and Snap, its standard packaging technologies, but no longer provides a standard competitor. This decision is described as a concern for consistency and simplicity for users.
By focusing on these technologies, Ubuntu claims to be able to better support the community in solving software-related problems. While Canonical doesn’t have full control over every snap package released to the Snap Store, it does have some control over the format itself. This makes it easier for Canonical to diagnose and resolve issues that arise during packaging or distribution. In addition, since Canonical operates the official Snap Store, it has some control over the quality of the packs it hosts. She can work with developers to ensure packages meet certain standards and do not contain obvious bugs or security vulnerabilities.
In comparison, Flatpak is developed and maintained by a community of contributors rather than being tied to a company or organization. According to Canonical, this can make it difficult to coordinate bug fixes or updates, as there isn’t always a single entity responsible for the technology. During the announcement, Kewisch mentioned the fragmentation issues:
In an ideal world, users have only one way to install software. If they do, they can be assured that this mechanism is community-supported and draws the most attention when it comes to fixing problems in software packages. When a new packaging technology is deployed by default, the distribution is expected to provide community support and development investment to resolve the issues. This leads to fragmentation instead of focusing on improving the technologies selected for distribution. There is a key difference between installing the base Flatpak package by default and setting up a Flatpak repository like Flathub (or something Ubuntu-specific), which has never been the case with Ubuntu and its variants. Simply removing the base Flatpak installation from the default installation does not prevent users from having problems with Flatpak applications if they install them anyway. Nor will it make these problems easier to solve.
This adds grist to the mill for Canonical, who are essentially doing this to serve their own interests. For example, because it controls the Snap Store, the company can share revenue from any proprietary Snaps available there. But while Canonical has selfish reasons for making this change, it’s important to remember that Flatpak hasn’t been phased out entirely; Users can still install the package management system manually.
impact
This decision has drawn mixed reactions within the Linux community, with some users and developers saying they owe it to the decision. Others supported Canonical’s decision and agreed with his reasoning regarding the unnecessary burden Flatpak places on support staff. Forum user Aaron Rainbolt (“arraybolt3”) said that Ubuntu tries to rarely change versions of its packages and only update them for important bug fixes, which is not the case at all with flatpaks, so users may experience instability when using them, e.g Example. In an answer, “h0lly” saw it differently:
People who choose Flatpaks do so precisely because they want the latest (stable) versions, which I think a lot of users do, as evidenced by the increasing popularity of Flatpaks.
Thanks to sandboxing, Flatpak apps usually work great right out of the box. Your image of users having bad experiences with unstable Flatpaks is largely made up. And even then, not having flatpak selected as the default source in the App Store is enough to “protect” inexperienced users. If it really mattered, it would be enough to display a small notice warning the user when selecting a Flatpak source for the first time.
Canonical doesn’t need to verify anything here. There’s absolutely nothing technical to stop the support staff from saying “sorry, you’ll need to contact the maintainer of this flatpak for assistance, we can’t help you” while also having it as a built-in option. Although I don’t think it’s as common as you say.
Rainbolt also defended the change, noting that while Flatpak was more convenient, Snap packages offered better long-term compatibility and reduced the burden on technical support staff. “An application doesn’t have to be buggy to cause problems for technical support staff. It just needs to be different from what users are used to.”
Another potential issue is that Canonical could use this decision to force upstream packages to offer a snap version, otherwise it might not be available in the default Ubuntu install.
Ubuntu clearly wanted to present this decision as a united front with its flavors, but some have questioned that. As recently as December 2022, Sean Davis, technical lead for the Xubuntu variant, was seen promoting Flatpak. While a lot can change in a few months, it seems odd that Davis only recently commented on the benefits of Flatpak:
With the addition of the flatpak and gnome-software-plugin-flatpak packages, Xubuntu now supports the flatpak package format. Now you can easily install apps from Flathub with just a few clicks. In fact, any .flatpakref or .flatpakrepo file is natively supported by GNOME software. The rationale behind Canonical’s decision remains somewhat unclear, but Flatpak users can take comfort in the fact that it’s still possible to enable the package management system, even though doing so is now a bit of a chore.
Use Flatpak
For starters, this means users must first manually install Flatpak and a dpt like Flathub before they can start installing Flatpak apps from the Ubuntu Software Center. Flatpak is part of the Universe repository, which means it’s included in the community repository for Ubuntu packages not officially supported by Canonical. Because of this, Flatpak can be installed via the Ubuntu Software Center or the GNOME Software GUI.
Once Flatpak is installed, it can be connected to a Flatpak repository like Flathub. To configure Flathub the following command can be used:
1 | $ flatpak remote-add –if-not-exists flathub \N-_Flatpak remote-add –if-not-exists Flathub \ https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo |
In his announcement, Kewisch addressed some concerns users might have about the decision. For example, users don’t lose access to apps that depend on the Flatpak ecosystem: we added a special migration that checks if you have Flatpak packages installed or remotes configured. If this is the case, upgrading to Lunar Lobster will not automatically remove Flatpak and related Software Center plugins. So you don’t have to worry about this change. Also, Flatpak users don’t have to worry about removing the package management system on current and older versions of Ubuntu: no, flavors do not actively remove package managers from current or older versions. This change impacts the upgrade to Lunar Lobster and beyond where it is available, but will not be installed by default on fresh installs.
Diploma
Ubuntu’s decision to default Flatpak is important, but it’s not the end of the road for Ubuntu’s package management system. As the Linux ecosystem evolves, more new technologies and approaches are likely to emerge to meet the needs of users and developers. For now, Ubuntu users who want to use Flatpak will have to adapt to the new way of doing things, but will still have access to the same wide range of Flatpak applications.
Source: LWN
And you ?
What is your opinion on the topic?
Do you think Snap can replace Flatpak in terms of features?
See also
Release of Flatpak 1.0, the framework for sandboxed desktop apps on Linux, promising to revolutionize the Linux ecosystem
Flathub reveals its current status and plans for 2023, including progress on developing an app store service
GNOME and KDE, the powerhouses of the Linux desktop, unite to create an application store based on Flatpak: can the initiative make it possible to move Windows to the desktop?