| Flatpak | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Original author | Alexander Larsson |
| Developer | Flatpak Team[1] |
| Initial release | September 2015; 10 years ago (2015-09)[2] |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux |
| License | LGPL-2.1-or-later[4] |
| Website | flatpak |
Flatpak is autility forsoftware deployment andpackage management forLinux. It provides asandbox environment in which users can runapplication software in (partial) isolation from the rest of the system.[5][6] Flatpak was known asxdg-app until 2016.[7]
Applications using Flatpak need permissions to access resources such asBluetooth, sound (withPipeWire),network, andfiles. These permissions are configured by the maintainer of the Flatpak and can be added or removed by users on their system.[8][9]
Another key feature of Flatpak allows application developers to directly provide updates to users without going throughLinux distributions, and without having to package and test the application separately for each distribution.[10]
Because Flatpak runs in a sandbox (which provides a separate,ABI-stable version of common system libraries), it uses more space on the system than common native packages. However,OSTree, a technology underlying Flatpak,deduplicates matching files. This means that the first few Flatpak installations will occupy more space, but as more packages are added, the system will use space more efficiently.[11]
Flathub, a centralized repository (or remote source in the Flatpak terminology) located atflathub.org[1], is thede facto standard for obtaining applications packaged with Flatpak.[12] Packages are contributed by both Flathub administrators and application developers, with a stated preference for submissions from the developers themselves.[13]
AlthoughFlathub is the de facto source for applications packaged with Flatpak, it is possible to host a Flatpak repository that is independent of Flathub.[14][15][16]
Theoretically, Flatpak apps can be installed on any existing and futureLinux distribution, including those installed with theWindows Subsystem for Linux compatibility layer, so long asBubblewrap andOSTree are available.
It can also be used onLinux kernel-based systems likeChromeOS.[17]
| dpkg | |
|---|---|
| RPM | |
| Embedded systems |
|
| Distribution-agnostic | |
| Others (binary) | |
| Others (source) | |
| Front-ends | |
| Related topics | |
Italics= inactive or discontinued | |
| Active |
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defunct |
| ||||||||
| |||||||||
Free and open-source software projects hosted byfreedesktop.org | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OS components |
|  | ||||||
| Libraries | ||||||||
| Frameworks | ||||||||
| Meetings | ||||||||
