Still don’t know how I’m supposed to add dictionaries to FF on snap. So many little issues like this with snaps.
Flatpak and SystemD Portable services are actually pretty good.
That’s the direction I see Linux going. I personally use NixOS because I am sad.
I looked into Nix but it seemed like it locks you into using bash for your shell. Is that the case?
Sorry I was meaning in the context of using nix-shell for isolated reproducible environments. I read that things can go wrong if you try to use a shell other than bash
Tar is not a package manager, it is just a packaging format. AppImage has the same problem.
Flatpak is a bit of a crappy package manager but at least it is one. And, due to its use of container technology, it allows the same packages to run on any Linux kernel (any Linux distro). That is pretty useful.
Of the other package managers, apk 3 is my favourite but the only distro that uses it is Chimera Linux. Pacman is good. dnf / RPM is ok. apt / deb is in last place for me. The recent Ubuntu 25.04 launch snafu illustrates some of the problems with apt. The first Linus Tech Tips Linux challenge really highlighted the dangers of apt.
I only used snap briefly but instantly hated it. Fstab was a mess. It was slow. It was proprietary. I fled before I could form an educated opinion.
it allows the same packages to run on any Linux kernel (any Linux distro). That is pretty useful.
flatpak itself depends on namespaces, so saying that it works on any kernel is quite a stretch.
Can flatpak do this? This is a GIMP3 appimage running on ubuntu 10.04 without any container:
The kernel is so old that even the appimage runtime itself complains of missing functions and has to fallback to a workaround.
UPDATE: flatpak can’t work because bubblewrap itself can’t:
PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS is only available since kernel 3.5
Nix is just across the street sipping tea because it understands what it is and is at peace with the chaotic world around it.
Haha, I break snap a lot less than the others, and it took a bit to figure out the differences. Appimages are annoying af. Flatpaks are my favourite when there isn’t a good old .deb. I recently broke Flatpak though so it’s on my naughty list. Snap still chugging along for some reason, I just wish the permissions weren’t so crazy strict (Nextcloud).
Speaking of all this, I realised I’ve accidentally installed some things twice. Is there a good way to list all the different package managers together to see what is duplicated?
I broke Gnome and now I have Flatpaks that don’t launch. I don’t want to reinstall so I am slowly fixing things.
You can try flatpak repair.
Or it could be a leftover .desktop file for that app.
You can check if that app is still installed with flatpak list
AppImage is a package format, not a package manager. Same with tar.
So, I would say the primary complaint should be a lack of package management.
So, I would say the primary complaint should be a lack of package management.
I want a centralised app manage, not 50. I’d probably stick them in a folder and forget them if not for Gear Lever.
So, I would say the primary complaint should be a lack of package management.
