whatis flatpak
Flatpak
Also known as: Flathub
A cross-distribution app format that bundles desktop apps with their runtimes and runs them in a sandbox, distributed mainly via Flathub.
What Is Flatpak in Linux?
Flatpak apps work the same on Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch, and immutable distros because they carry their own runtime libraries. Shared runtimes are deduplicated, so installing many apps does not multiply disk use as much as you might expect.
Apps run in a sandbox with declared permissions, which you can inspect and tighten with Flatseal or flatpak override.
Example
flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP
flatpak override --user --nofilesystem=home org.gimp.GIMPLearn more about Flatpak
- Snap vs Flatpak vs AppImage: Universal Linux Packages Explained Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage each solve the problem of distributing Linux software across distributions, but with very different approaches. Here is how each works, what each is best for, and when to use which.
- Flatpak Permissions Explained: What the Sandbox Actually Confines How Flatpak sandboxing works, why filesystem=home makes it decorative, how to inspect and tighten what an app can reach, and what portals do.