Re:Flatpak: A security nightmare – two years later
by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:37AM
(#24661952)
Holy shit I hate this opinion. The best thing about personal computing is being able to build software and just pass it around easily. Having to rely on a third party to be able to install software is awful.
Re:Flatpak: A security nightmare – two years later
by swiley on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:43AM
(#24661986)
I'm absolutely not suggesting you rely on a third party. It's very easy and preferable to pass around source code, and it's (by design) very easy to build GNU/Linux apps from the source.
Distributing binaries will absolutely bring about calls to lock computing down to 3rd party distributors because the kind of people that can't handle typing `./configure` are the same kind that will pull random maleware off of google.
No good can come from installing closed software anyway.
Re:Flatpak: A security nightmare – two years later
by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:51AM
(#24662048)
> I'm absolutely not suggesting you rely on a third party. It's very easy and preferable to pass around source code, and it's (by design) very easy to build GNU/Linux apps from the source.
Yeah, it is so easy that no one ever uses containers to ensure a consistent and working build environment for software!
Oh wait, yes they do.
Re:Flatpak: A security nightmare – two years later
by swiley on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:54AM
(#24662071)
If your application is that complex then yes you probably should be working with it in a container.
There are decades of very good desktop applications that are simple and easy to build. Flatpack will just encourage things like slack.
If you're unfamiliar with computers then you should only use things sandboxed as heavily as web pages or native apps that have been carefully reviewed by operating system maintainers.
If you know enough to make a useful decision on the safety of an app than you can probably build it yourself from github.
This practice of flinging binaries around is only useful for "software markets" and almost always seems to end up distributing the most pathological garbage possible.