I still don’t understand flatpack on Linux. I see how it makes releasing binaries easy, but the cost and idea is contrary to basic unix principles.
What cost? It works really well, hence why it's gaining traction so fast.
Well, there's the increased storage usage, and in some cases, more ram. There can also be issues with integration with your distro themes, etc.
Many people will consider these as a small cost to the benefits of flatpaks, but I can understand the ones who aren't sold on it.
Storage increase is a myth https://www.ypsidanger.com/wasting-disk-space/
Disrto theme bugs occur if the dev doesn't write the app theme agnostic enough. Nothing wrong with flatpak. Those "bugs" will disappear the more flatpak is used
I jumped ship from Ubuntu to fedora last year and fedora is awesome. Fedora has a bit newer packages and the default felt right (albeit I missed system tray plugin from Ubuntu). Some hardware work better OOTB on Ubuntu, so always try with a live distro first.
Is system tray plugin available on Fedora or do I need some kind of patch on Gnome? Why would hardware work differently on Fedora?
Last I tried a couple deb packages didnt exist in rpm, how is package availability?
I see @joojmachine@lemmy.ml already answered some of your questions, but regarding "why would hardware work differently on fedra", I assume it has to do with what kernel is being shipped, and what drivers that is also shipped with the distro by default. Sometimes drivers aren't shipped due to legal reasons, and a distro can be shipped with a kernel that dosen't have certain support for certain hardware.
You can always download it as an extension instead of a system package for the extension, but yeah, it's available on our repos.
Also, pretty good. It will likely never be as many packages as there are in Debian's repos, but even without Flatpak there was never a package I couldn't find either in our repos or on COPR.
As a contributor, I'm biased, but let me put it this way: it's the distro that made me so comfortable using it and with a community so welcoming, I became a contributor 😅
