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Re:Why Flatpak Apps Use So Much Disk Space on Linux by loloquwowndueo on Monday May 05, 2025 @09:02AM (#43894674)
No, this is an orthogonal concern. Bundling all the dependencies and killing users hard disks is not a solution to the “Every platform needs a way to distribute and install third-party applications” problem. If anything the proliferation of packaging formats and useless quibbles between snap and flatpak move us farther from the solution as there are now several competing dependency-bundling installers which require installing a package handler anyway.

In that respect flatpak is better because it’s more universally available than the Ubuntu-specific snaps (attempts at making snap cross-distro are laughable and failed) but it still introduces a bunch of tangential issues which are too much of a bother for the average user versus just doing “apt install” and moving on with their lives. PPAs cover this acceptably if suboptimally for Deb packages.

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