Flatpak

Flatpak is a utility for software deployment and package management for Linux. It is advertised as offering a sandbox environment in which users can run application software in isolation from the rest of the system.[4][5]

Not to be confused with Flatpack.
Flatpak
Original author(s)Alex Larsson
Developer(s)Flatpak Team
Initial releaseSeptember 2015 (2015-09)[1]
Stable release
1.8 / 24 June 2020 (2020-06-24)[2]
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemLinux
LicenseLGPL[3]
Websiteflatpak.org

Flatpak was developed as part of the freedesktop.org project (formerly known as X Desktop Group or XDG) and was originally called xdg-app.[6]

Features

Applications using Flatpak need permissions to have access to Bluetooth, sound (with PulseAudio), network, files, etc., permissions that are defined by the maintainer of the Flatpak and can be controlled (added or removed) by users on their system.[7][8]

Another key feature of Flatpak is that it allows application developers to directly provide updates to users without going through distributions, and without having to package and test the application separately for each distribution.[9]

Flathub, a repository (or remote source in the Flatpak terminology) located at flathub.org, has become the de facto standard for getting applications packaged with Flatpak.[10] Packages are added to it by both the Flathub administrators and the developers of the programs themselves (though the admins have stated their preference for developer-submitted apps).[11] Although Flathub is the de facto source for applications packaged with Flatpak, Flatpak can work independently of Flathub;[12] it is possible to host a Flatpak repository that is completely independent of Flathub.[13][14]

Support

Theoretically, Flatpak apps can be installed on any existing Linux distribution.

However, among the first Linux distributions which added support to Flatpak apps out-of-the-box there are: Elementary OS,[15] Endless OS,[16] Fedora Silverblue[17][18] and Pop! OS.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Flatpak's History". GitHub.
  2. "Releases · flatpak/flatpak". GitHub.
  3. "LGPL". xdg-app repository. freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  4. Larsson, Alexander (29 April 2016). "Using bubblewrap in xdg-app". Alexander Larsson: Cool links and commentary. GNOME. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  5. Willis, Nathan (2015-01-21). "GNOME and application sandboxing revisited". LWN. Archived from the original on 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
  6. Larsson, Alexander (9 May 2016). "Renamed to flatpak in git". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  7. "Sandbox Permissions". Flatpak documentation. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  8. "flatpak-run". Flatpak documentation. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  9. Larsson, Alex. "Kick-starting the revolution 1.0". Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  10. "7 Flatpak Apps You Can Install Right Now from Flathub". OMG! Ubuntu!. 2017-07-20. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  11. GitHub - flathub/flathub: Pull requests for new applications to be added., Flathub, 2019-05-24, retrieved 2019-05-29
  12. "Reasons to use Flatpak". Flatpak documentation. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  13. "List remotes". Flatpak documentation. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  14. "Hosting a Repository". Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  15. "elementary OS Now Has Support for Flatpak Apps".
  16. "Flatpak–Endless OS Quick Setup".
  17. "Fedora Silverblue".
  18. "Manage Packages on Fedora Silverblue with Toolbox, rpm-ostree & Flatpak".
  19. "What's New with Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS".
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