Flatpak-NG sounds like bad news for systemd refuseniks

SOFTWARE

Linux app packaging rethink may depart alternative-init distros within the chilly

Flatpak growth has been very quiet for years. Discussions a few next-generation take are occurring – and a few of the indicators are worrying if, like many FOSS of us, you’re systemd-intolerant.

Within the course of researching our article on MX Linux 25.2, we got here throughout an fascinating Reddit discussion from final month, which in flip led us to a Flatpak development blog post from late final 12 months.

It seems like a group is gathering concepts for what’s at present known as “Flatpak-NG” – as in subsequent technology. If this solidifies into code, this will type the premise of Flatpak model 2.

The weblog publish is not very informative, however the Reddit thread hyperlinks to the video of a presentation from final month’s Linux App Summit in Berlin, which spells issues out extra clearly.

The Flatpak-NG concept includes handing off lots of the isolation in Flatpak from the present bubblewrap layer to an as-yet-unwritten systemd element that the builders are at present calling systemd-appd. This could significantly simplify Flatpak, and allow it to do extra isolation, together with virtualizing the community stack – however on the value of constructing Flatpak 2 rely upon systemd. A developer who was on the discuss, Jorge Castro, later explained and confirmed this in a Fediverse thread.

The groups behind different init techniques may, after all, write their very own substitute for the notional systemd-appd, however that might be a considerable quantity of labor. The instrument that gives the brand new init-switching performance in MX Linux 25.1 and 25.2, init-diversity, at present helps six different init techniques apart from systemd, and we have seen little signal of them cooperating to create an alternative choice to systemd that gives even a subset of its wider performance.

Flatpak is broadly used and supported. Not all distros embrace it by default, nevertheless it’s the one broadly adopted various to Canonical’s Snap packaging system.

Snap is extra versatile: it really works superb with shell applications, and even the kernel will be packaged as a Snap, which is how Ubuntu Core handles it. Snap’s implementation is way easier and cleaner than Flatpak’s, as is the distribution mannequin – which, as we have reported before, is solely open supply. The one proprietary half is Canonical’s Snap Retailer web site. The difficulty is, the louder advocates within the peanut gallery hardly ever even take into consideration issues like implementation particulars; they simply get upset about extra seen issues which are simpler to grasp – comparable to who owns a web site.

There are different alternate options on the market, comparable to AppImage, 0install, AppDir, and GNUstep’s implementation of NeXT and Apple’s .app format. Now we have compared these in detail before.

Solely two actually have vast adoption, although. There’s Snap, which Canonical claims has more users just because Ubuntu has extra customers than all the opposite desktop distros put collectively, and there is Flatpak, which is utilized by each different distro with any form of cross-distro package deal help.

The snag is, if Flatpak 2 does arrive in a 12 months or two, and requires systemd, then that would spell the top of Flatpak help on many systemd-free distros. That features MX Linux, Alpine Linux, Devuan, Slackware, and plenty of different smaller tasks. For a lot of of those, Flatpak is a lifeline: the one solution to entry a lot of the broader Linux app market.

It is not a lot that the Flatpak-NG group is the “A-Staff,” however the one group. Within the original A-Team, Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith was wont to say “I find it irresistible when a plan comes collectively.” We suspect lots of people won’t find it irresistible if this plan comes collectively. ®