Flatpak, known as xdg-app until May 2016, is an application virtualization, universal package management, and deployment utility for GNU/Linux desktop environments.
A few days ago the news broke that Philipp Kewisch from Canonical has announced the decision to not provide the ability to install Flatpak packages in the default settings of the official editions of Ubuntu.
This movement will be effective as of Ubuntu 23.04, in which the deb flatpak package, as well as the packages for working with the Flatpak format in the Application Installation Center, will be excluded from the base distribution of all official Ubuntu editions.
Users of previously installed systems that used Flatpak packages you will still be able to use this format after upgrading to Ubuntu 23.04. Users who have not used Flatpak after the update by default will only have access to the Snap Store and the distribution's regular repositories.
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The different flavors of Ubuntu offer a unique way to experience Ubuntu and are part of what makes Ubuntu not just an operating system, but an ecosystem of Linux variations that promotes choice and diversity.
One of those fundamental aspects of any Linux distribution is packaging. All the major distros have made dogged decisions to provide consistency in their ecosystem. Ubuntu is based on deb packages and believes in the advantages of Snaps.
In an ideal world, users experience only one way to install software. When they do, you can expect this mechanism to be supported by the community and receive the most attention when it comes to troubleshooting software packages. When a new packaging technology is provided by default, there is an expectation that the distribution will support the community and invest in contributing to development to solve problems. This creates fragmentation instead of focusing on improving the technologies chosen for distribution.
As such the main focus of official Ubuntu releases will now be to promote and evolve the Snap package format.
According to the developers of the distribution, supporting two competing formats only leads to fragmentation instead of focusing on improving the technologies chosen for the distribution.
In the words of Canonical, the default support for a uniform format for Ubuntu is expected to help maintain the unity of the ecosystem and improve the experience of new users with the distribution.
As part of our combined efforts, Ubuntu variants have made a joint decision to adjust some of the default packages in Ubuntu: in the future, the Flatpak package and the packages for integrating Flatpak into the respective software center will no longer be installed by default in the next release due April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have used Flatpak will not be affected by the update, as the flavors include a special migration that takes this into account. Those who have not interacted with Flatpak will be presented with software from the Ubuntu and Snap Store repositories.
It is worth mentioning that the decision has been agreed with the developers of the official editions Ubuntu updates, including Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, UbuntuKylin, and Ubuntu Unity.
Those who wish to use the Flatpak format will need to install separately a package to support it from the repository (flatpak deb package) and, if necessary, turn on support for the Flathub catalog.
For those who are still unaware of flatpack, they should know that this is a package system that offers easy-to-use tools and extensive documentation, and is developed and supported by the community.
Canonical's Snap utility was developed in-house and offers functionality similar to Flatpak, although it only supports systems that use the systemd init system. Snap has drawn criticism due to its closed-source development model, slow app release times, and automatic update system.
Canonical cares about unifying the user experience Of all the official variants of Ubuntu and it's understandable to some extent, but the fact that you don't take into account the comments that have been highlighted over and over again about Snap, it's clear that it will stop being the best option in terms of functionality and security.
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