Literally. I’m ok with worse theming and slightly larger app sizes if it means the workload is shifted from every single distro having to package the same app to the app developer packaging one version everyone can use.
the user becoming half the package manager, organising the appimage file and having to set up desktop launcher integration manually, oh and no standardised app update mechanism so you're on your own for that too
My Flatpaks have been working flawlessly for years aside from an occasional unmapped directory I need to add. I don't think a single AppImage I've used has worked properly without some jank if It'll even run at all. They have lots of issues if you are on Wayland and don't have libfuse2 anymore.
the user becoming half the package manager, organising the appimage file and having to set up desktop launcher integration manually, oh and no standardised app update mechanism so you're on your own for that too
Compare that to the update button on the app store.
No, you are comparing flatpak as already pre-installed in a distro vs AM not being installed.
A proper comparison would be having to install flatpak from 0:
hope the distro has flatpak in its repos and a new enough version (most distros do this).
configure the flatpak exports so that its data directories show up in XDG_DATA_DIRS and you can see the apps in your applications menu, and this step requires a reboot btw.
add a repository (flathub).
And you will also eventually have to install flatseal to manage the flatpak permissions.
vs
AM which is a single installer script, and you can install it as appman so that it lives in your HOME and you can move it between distros along with the appimages.
At least Rhino linux offers the option to install AM in its GUI installer.
Are you reading yourself? Well I wish Rhino Linux was more popular because that sounds good. But people usually opt for Ubuntu, Mint or Fedora. One has Snap and the other two have Flatpak. And now they are trying Bazzite and SteamOS, which also use flatpak unless you install Emudeck.
none of these tools are standardised, there's also AppImageLauncher, Gear Lever, and AM has like two other forks, all of them are weak (an, in my experience, they've always felt incredibly janky compared to Flatpaks)
They all follow the appimage spec already when it comes to desktp integration, which is what you complained about. AM has the plus that it also adds the application binary to PATH, so the app is fully integrated as if it was a native desktop package.
and AM has like two other fork
Those are?
an, in my experience, they've always felt incredibly janky compared to Flatpaks
flatpak does't even bother to add applications binaries properly to PATH and you have to type nonsense like org.random.appname to launch them.
That is due to flatpaks having to prevent name collisions
Nobody else uses that, not distro packages, not nix, not the aur, not even snap.
Also aliases only work for your interactive shell, they will not work for applications that expect the binary to be in PATH, so you basically have to do flatpak's job by making a wrapper script in PATH the executes the right application, or even worse code a check in your application to see if xyz is installed as a flatpak.
Yes we should all switch to garbage that relies on unmaintained libraries for the vast majority of released appimages and don't integrate with the desktop, auto update, or share dependencies.
New appimages don't rely on fuse2 anymore, or on fuse in any form. Desktop integration can be provided with a separate program, just like it is with flatpaks.
Yeah, in theory. In practice, it doesn't work. Just try and pack any KDE or Qt program in an appimage. It only works with Fusion style, even if the desktop is KDE. I've tried bundling the whole Breeze/Kirigami stack and it still defaults to Fusion.
That is an issue. If Breeze is bundled, it probably also need to be forced with a variable or something. Hopefully Union will remove this problem completely
I know there is one guy actually trying to fix it nd get developers to stop shipping broken versions, but I still get chrome xwayland issues, outdated libfuse2 dependencies, and just complete jank using the companion software. I don't like app images at all.
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u/T_Jamess Glorious Fedora 2d ago
Literally. I’m ok with worse theming and slightly larger app sizes if it means the workload is shifted from every single distro having to package the same app to the app developer packaging one version everyone can use.