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Flatpak
This article is part of the bloat and vomit inducing series
Flatpak (also known as Fatpak) is a bloated package manager for Linux. It aims to "unify" and replace all distro specific package managers into a single one. Because of that, it ships ALL libraries required by any installed program, even in the distro already includes them, for "compatibility" purposes, sometimes for EACH package; this makes fatpak extremely bloated. "Ohhh brother one more package and fatpak will begin reusing the libraries trust bro". When that mythical point is reached you will already have like 20 copies of glibc and like 5 video drivers for GPUs your machine does not even have.
Futhermore, Fatpak also forces a permission model and sandboxing for programs, ("apps" in their terms). This is a step towards turning Linux into another locked platform like mobile operating systems, where "apps" can only be installed from a single pre-approved source, blocking any attempt from the user to install his own "apps". Actually, fatpak already has a "app store", see: https://flathub.org/. It is also notable how almost all of their "apps" look exactly the same, this is because they also aim to force GNOME as the only GUI toolkit along with the awful "Adwaita" theme.
{ Prediction: 8K screens will be required for GTK6 at this point given that their title bars occupy half the screen in "old and obsolete" <=2K screens lmao ~tocariimaa }
Less harmful alternatives
- your distro native package manager (if you come from the future and your package manager is fatpak, change distro)
- BSDs don't have any of this bullshit.