Linux

Doesn't work properly, apps are bigger and don't always apply GTK themes. I also can't easily edit the desktop file to edit the icons. I therefore only use it as a backup when I can't find an app on the AUR or office repositories, which is very rare.

Mostly positive. My encoding utility Aviator can be shipped with a custom community-backed SVT-AV1 fork in the background without anyone noticing any issues like they would if I linked to system SVT-AV1. Flatpak makes this kind of thing easy, and users don't have to think about it.

It is awesome

I never ever will use a flatpak or snap or whatever "application". I'm using good old .deb package.

I wish more apps where officially supported, instead of saying it supports Linux and providing a .deb. Good thing the community provides unofficial flatpaks at least.

The problem with Flatpak is that for me I would only use it to sandbox propietary apps, and most of these are not officially supported, so there is almost always something broken, like screen sharing, etc.

My totally unscientific opinion (with a double-your-money-back guarantee!):

I'm not crazy about either Flatpak or Snap for that matter as there's so much backend baggage for both as well as certain hurdles regarding privileges and access to the file system (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong or working with dated information.)

My other completely prejudiced, unfounded bias against Flatpak is that it appears to have been adopted by RedHat as "the one true way," and what with IBM's/RedHat's behaviour anti-FOSS behaviour lately, plus I've almost always have been an apt user, I find it a pill hard to swallow.

Me, say what you will about the security issues and its other flaws, but I like AppImage.

I usually prefer not to use them, but they flatpak for Prism Launcher comes with all versions of Java preinstalled which is convenient because I play verious versions of Minecraf, other than that I try to use xbps as much as possible

What's not to Ike? These systems' development has been long overdue.

A lot of people seem to complain about them, but I really like them. I've even started using them over the AUR for some things now. I like that they keep certain things like Steam a lot tidier, and I like being able to see and control permissions and settings for everything all in Flatseal. The main downside I guess is that they use up more space by downloading dependencies for each app individually which is kind of redundant, but for me I've got a pretty big SSD in my laptop so it's never caused me any trouble. I could see how it could be a problem for someone with limited space on their system though.

Generally I tend to go Flatpak/AUR as a first choice, Appimage if I really need to, and Snaps never lol.

AUR is similar to flathub in that most packages aren't thoroughly checked. Except for the packaging guidelines which usually have to be followed. I'm not sure how in depth nixpkgs or other distros check the source of packages of new maintainers.

Flatpak runs on all distros and supports sandboxing, which makes it a great addition to all distro repos. AUR can cause issues with dependencies and unmaintained packages, and the make file should be read since it's run with root privileges. Additionally the AUR only works on Arch Linux. Breakage isn't a risk with Nix and it's seamless rollback, but has to be installed deeply into the system (/nix)

My personally preferred package manager for most GUI apps is flatpak. Nix is great because it allows to install packages declaratively.

Edit: NixOS -> Nix

On the one hand I like the basic idea, on the other hand I think that some fundamental problems aren't fully solved yet. There big use case are passkeys and direct password manager integration – neither mesh well with the idea of software that isn't allowed to talk to most of the system.

I'm certain that this will be resolved at some point but for now I don't think Flatpak and its brethren are quite there yet.

The sandbox can be very cumbersome when there is not a way to break out. I'm thinking specifically of command line tools for developers. You can poke holes in the sandbox to access the filesystem, but the moment you want to run an executable it won't let you.

I installed PyCharm via flatpak. I don’t appreciate that I can’t access vim via the IDE’s terminal, and so far that’s all I really have to say about it. I like that things are sandboxed, and I think maybe this wasn’t the kind of thing I ought to have used flatpak for.

Everything I've gotten as a flatpak has been borked in one way or another. I only use it if there is literally no other option available.

Get Job done but remember don't use it for Browser and Text Editor. It will make you suffer.