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

Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
 
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Links 11/06/2025: More Vulnerabilities Found in 'Smart' Phones, China Extends Reach in the Pacific
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2025: Grain and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Links 11/06/2025: "Quantum" Hype From IBM, US Closer to Martial Law, and “The Nation” Celebrates Milestone
Links for the day
IBM's CEO Roasted, Sizzled and Grilled for Dumb and Inconsistent Vapourware Promises
It looks like being a chronic liar is what it takes to lead the company once synonymous with computing
IBM's Goal Is Not (and Never Was) Computer Users' Freedom
More than 1.5 decades ago I found IBM to be an "ally of convenience" because of OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Wayland Shows the IBM/Red Hat Way of Doing Things
IBM is trying to 'kill' X
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
GitHub is Proprietary, Controlled by Microsoft, and GPL Violation Warehouse
"IRS tax filing software [will be] released to the people as free software" ... In general this is good news
Slopfarm Catastrophe
Seems like BetaNews (or BetaNoise) has just suffered a major data loss and restored the site from a week-old backup
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VIII: Illegal Working Conditions
How many people need to die for these people to get their massive salaries?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Links 10/06/2025: Apple Hype and Physical Attacks on Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/06/2025: Loon Lake, Farming, and Forth
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
"Tragedy or comedy?"
Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
More on that later
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
Live as You Preach
technology is fast becoming dysphoric