←back to thread

The Future of Flatpak

(lwn.net)
306 points dxs | 1 comments | 22 May 25 23:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.337s | source
Show context
forrestthewoods ◴[23 May 25 04:48 UTC] No.44069936[source]▶
Over here in Windows land I can’t fathom why you need something like Flatpak just so users can reliably launch and run a program. I mean trust me I understand that Linux is so broken it needs something like flatpak. But imagine saying you’re disappointed the Windows executable format isn’t evolving! Running an exe shouldn’t require decades of maintenance. It shouldn’t be that complicated. It doesn’t have to be.
replies(7): >>44070461 #>>44070903 #>>44071181 #>>44071284 #>>44071949 #>>44072664 #>>44123625 #
1. flomo ◴[23 May 25 09:21 UTC] No.44071284[source]▶
Honestly, you have a point. At one point there was a proposal for a "Linux Standard Base", but none of the distros really cared (they had their special sauce), so it withered. If Linux app devs could target "LSB-2020" or something, it could be similar to Windows devs targeting a particular Windows version. Flatpak is basically a work-around to the distributions.

(Note that Windows also does vitalization for compatibility reasons.)

On another level, maybe it's just "in the name". Windows lets you run your GUI windowing programs, and that all keeps working. GNU/Linux lets you run 1990 base industry standard API programs, all that keeps working, but for anything else, all bets are off.