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Why can't flatpaks just work
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Android has the benefit of being greenfield and has an API that everything needs to go through to access the system. Flatpacks and snaps do not have this. They need to work with applications that were never designed to be sandboxed and just expect to have access to everything all the time so is a much harder problem to solve.
No reason why Flatpak can't create such an API though so that new applications can use it, older applications can eventually switch to, etc. We're already seeing adoption of things like xdg-desktop-portal so it isn't that out of the question.
Yes, but this takes time and still has to work with applications that dont support it. Where Anrdoid can just force everyone that wants to create an app to use their API. So it is harder for flatpack to encourage everyone to adpot it.
Of course, it will definitely take time to transition over, but that's the case for all APIs in the PC ecosystem. I am a firm believer of "if you build it people will come" and I am sure a well integrated Flatpak permissions system with good UX is a convincing argument for a lot of apps to switch over.