Bonum Certa Men Certa

Flatpak Should Really Have Been Named Fatpack

Video download link | md5sum f7fc990d4a079fac76c8cb07ce514a79 Containing Developers Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Today we revisit packaging and distribution the "container" way (bloat, blob, not even a new concept as these used to be dubbed "appliances", not "apps"); the general verdict is that Fatpacks/Flatpaks are a GNOME/Red Hat (now IBM, but this predates the takeover bid by a couple of years) power play if not vendor lock-in by centralisation and standard-setting. Efficiency isn't among the goals and it is often falsely marketed.

THE Flatpak (Fatpack) way of doing things is troublesome for technical reasons, set aside ethical and legal reasons. Aside from infighting over Snap and Flatpak (AppImages are another kind of monster) there are some downsides as we noted here in the distant past [1, 2].



Nevertheless, there are now whole distros, not IBM's by the way (not Fedora derivatives either), that adopted Flatpak as a default option (see "The Top 8 Linux Distros That Have Adopted Flatpak").

To avoid repeating what we covered here before or what's said in the video above, let's just say that Flatpaks do have their merit in some scenarios. However, one must recognise the downsides too. Like with Snap or even with AppImages, there are bloated background processes running all the time 'in the mist' (more than abstraction layers), taking up RAM and CPU on any distribution laden with the bloat loader. In terms of performance, it's a regression. it is a step back.

"Like with Snap or even with AppImages, there are bloated background processes running all the time 'in the mist' (more than abstraction layers), taking up RAM and CPU on any distribution laden with the bloat loader."Red Hat's Flatpak went though a number of name changes, as history tells, but the final name should have been Fatpack. It's not a community project ("Fedora") but part of a Red hat ambition, coinciding with ambitions like sigStore. It's about centralisation. domination, and bloat, even domination over distros that aren't Red Hat's own. Canonical worked towards a similar thing at about the same time and both help shoehorn proprietary software into people's machines.

"There's been a huge increase in articles pushing proprietary "docker" approaches to problems," an associate told us this week. "There are a lot of problems that Flatpak claims to solve but no one addresses the wasted space caused by statically linking endless dependencies for each application again and again. Nor do any [...] approach the problem that it is mainly intended to carry a proprietary payload."

Well, they say Flatpak is good for developers, not necessarily users. They say it makes life easier, but that's sort of missing the point if it ends up replacing Free with proprietary. "For Flatpak," the associate explained, "dig up the description of it or try a Flatpak-based distro on a spare machine. Flatpak is an attempt to foist packaging off onto the developers which will result in an actual reduction in time spent doing actual development. Distros do the packaging and the developers can focus on writing the program. Flatpak can continue that route but the "selling point" is that somehow the developers are going to be so eager that they'll fall all over themselves to stop developing and spend their time packaging -- for free -- for IBM."

"While I don't oppose large blobs in some rare scenarios, making it the "new normal" would be an error.""Most developers hate administrivia. Packaging is a low-skilled activity, to boot, so it is a very good entry-level position for those who wish to begin participating in a distro or development in general. What the Flatpak fiasco is hiding is that those beginners are trying up as there are no colleges or universities where kids can learn computing any more. So every year, as people die and retire, there are fewer in absolute numbers because even basic replacement levels are not being reached."

"IBM has also driven away and dispersed a massive established community of volunteers. So this Flatpak is just a smoke screen. Seriously, given the change in IBM towards being strongly anti-Linux and anti-FOSS one can wonder if the Flatpak move is simply an attack on the time and morale of the remaining application developers. That IBM effectively disbanded the Fedora community plays into this problem. Flatpak is in itself a distro -- but one for proprietary packages."

Calling it Fatpak "would be accurate," the associate adds, "since a normal desktop quickly bloats to tens of gigabytes on the HD once you add a couple of applications. [...] Snaps are even worse..."

My own personal experience and perspective is covered in the video above. While I don't oppose large blobs in some rare scenarios, making it the "new normal" would be an error.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Windows Has Fallen to All-Time Lows in Switzerland Since GNU Celebrated 40th Anniversary (GNU’s 40th Birthday in Biel, Switzerland)
GNU/Linux has been doing well in Switzerland
One Person's Take on Jef Spaleta, the New Fedora Project Leader
"With a little searching, I wonder what else may be found regarding Microsoft."
LLM Slop Has Virtually Killed unixmen.com and Many Other Sites
There's no longer any incentive to write real articles in there
 
In Some Countries, Laptops and Desktops Become a Dying Breed (Even Before Tariffs), Windows Has Nowhere to Go
expect more GNU/Linux on new and existing laptops
When the Credibility or 'Quality' of Clients Ceases to Matter, It's About Helping Rich Companies Like Microsoft Censor Critics (No Matter the Risks)
Bad ideas typically result in undesirable outcomes
UAE: GNU/Linux and Android at Record Levels, Windows at New Lows and Falling Below Apple
Even iOS is measured as bigger than Windows this month
Links 07/04/2025: Reddit Occupied (Social Control Media Controlled by Oligarchy), Demise of Globalisation Ongoing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 06, 2025
Links 07/04/2025: Leaving Gemini/smolweb and Mastodon Migrations
Links for the day
In Iraq, Windows 3.1 (Percent)
There's also zero
Links 06/04/2025: Flood, Cool Gemini Capsule, and Long Form
Links for the day
Links 06/04/2025: Science, Politics, and Pricier Goods
Links for the day
Sharp Declines for Microsoft Windows in Bangladesh (Pop. ~175,000,000), Big Gains for GNU/Linux
Microsoft Windows has been having a really hard time in poor countries
Links 06/04/2025: Fake Reviews, Privatisation Heists, and "AI" as Smokescreen for Impoverishing Humans
Links for the day
Taking a Moral Stand Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and the Worst Offenders/Facilitators
Any other stance would sidle with moral depravity or moral hazard
Links 06/04/2025: Many New Acts of Repression and Elements of Financial Depression
Links for the day
In Qatar GNU/Linux Rose From Under 1% to Over 4% in Two Years (or Over 5% If Counting ChromeOS)
It's a big improvement compared to what we saw last year
LLM Scrapers Are a Nuisance, But They're Also a Reminder It's Time to Make Your Site Static
Perhaps the best protection is the ability to endure surges
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 05, 2025
Links 06/04/2025: Attacks on Education, Fake Patents, and Fake (Illegal) Patent Courts
Links for the day
France: Apple and Microsoft Down, GNU/Linux Up to New Record Levels
How will tariffs against France impact things in the coming months?
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: What Was Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
We hope to finish this whole lot within a week, then move on to election, lobbying etc.
Links 05/04/2025: Tariffs Backfiring, YouTuber Arrested, X/Twitter Set to be Fined
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Offline is For Everyone, Copyright Colonialism, and More
Links for the day
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025