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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Flatpak vs Snap vs Native Packages (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I know my way around Linux pretty well. However I never really got the gist of the difference between Snap, Flatpak and Native packages.

What exactly sets them apart?

Why does everyone seem to hate snap?

I have been using all of them, simultaneously on the same system and never really noticed a difference in the way installation, updates etc are handled (syntax ofc).

I hear snap sandboxes? Is that the main reason? Thanks for your insights..

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Flatpak sandboxes too, but it at least is fully Open source, you can create your own Flatpak Repository and add it to your flatpak to grab and install new packages you made yourself. For Snap... it implements not that good into the desktop I heard but may have changed, you can't create your own repository nor see the servers code as there is only 1 single server for Snap, and its canonicals Closed Source Snap Server. But hey, it at least got the super cool Hologram Open Source Sticker on it, because the client is at least Open Source... No thanks

I use PrismLauncher (Minecraft Launcher) inside Flatpak for example because it sandboxes the app so no stupid mod can infect me that easy now, haha! But generally its kinda comfy to use Flatpak because it has less dependency issues compared to Native Packages because Flatpak has its own Packages which Flatpak Apps can share to each other. Snap on the other hand can't have dependencies shared between Snap Apps so they all have duplicate dependencies.