Linux is the reason Windows apps are bloated these days

https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/50468743

Electron is the only cross platform gui toolkit…

If you ignore QT, GTK and everything else.

I’m so glad that Microsoft makes an awesome cross platfor— wait, no, but they contribute code to— hmmm … Hey, what does Microsoft do to make apps more portable again?

Flatpak
AppImage
Snap

Hell, let’s not forget
Python
Perl
Java
POSIX

The first 3 are Linux only. It’s irrelevant.
Also each is pretty bad in terms of usability and practicality, either losing integration because “containerized” or taking GBs of space or both

losing integration because “containerized”

Bollocks. I’ve seen that many times with Flatpak (can’t speak for Snap), and every single time it was either because the packager failed to set up permissions or because the user messed with permissions that the application needed. Break off the tip of a screwdriver and it will no longer function as a screwdriver.

And I know you’re talking out of your ass because AppImage isn’t even sandboxed.

taking GBs of space

That part is true and accurate, and for a very good reason: dependency pinning. System packages can break if they don’t have the correct versions of shared libraries. If a package requires a very old version of a library, and doesn’t link it statically or supply it with the package, it can misbehave, have missing features, or refuse to even start. Flatpak (and probably Snap too, can’t speak for it) solves that by letting the packager specify (pin) the exact version of a dependency. If five separate packages require five different versions of the GNOME application framework, then they will download five separate packages of the correct version. AppImage solves it by being monolithic: everything is packaged together into a single executable.

losing integration because “containerized”

Bollocks. I’ve seen that many times with Flatpak (can’t speak for Snap), and every single time it was either because the packager failed to set up permissions or because the user messed with permissions that the application needed. Break off the tip of a screwdriver and it will no longer function as a screwdriver.

Well then I guess you haven’t tried to get a password manager like KeepassXC to work with a Flatpak browser, because none of the solutions I’ve seen are “fix the permissions”.

From what I’ve read it seems you shouldn’t run a browser as a flatpak anyway, as this somehow weakens the built-in isolation.

I think I originally read about this somewhere librewolf-related but can’t seem to find it now.

I did find this similar discussion: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/correct-way-to-install-browsers-on-linux-securely/27046/6

Correct way to install browsers on Linux securely?

Does not interfere with the sandbox You can use Snaps on other distros, for example on Arch. Simply layer the browser with ostree or similar. That’s not always true. There is an official Flatpak for Firefox, yet it does not have the same sandboxing as via non-Flatpak installation. Same for Tor Browser Launcher Flatpak.

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