[Dev] GNOME Software, archlinux-appstream-data, and Flatpak

[Freemor]

On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 01:52:32PM -0400, Christopher Davis wrote:
> Flatpaks are installed in a sandboxed environment. If you have two
> of the same application installed your system will gracefully handle
> it without conflicts, allowing you to use both. It is not pip-style
> where it overwrites files on the system,
> and does not break anything on the system.

Sandboxed how? Saying a thing is sandboxed tell me little what is the exact
technical means of doing this.

So you're saying that if a flatpak pulls in ICU V+1 verses what is currently in
parabola That will not cause pacman installed applications that require ICU
v-parabola-current to cack and die because of a dependency mismatch. If so
Cool, How? Are flatpak applications launched in some way where their $PATH is
different  from the systems.

is it easy to tell a flatpak installed app from a pacman installed app. I.E.
when a less experienced user shows up on IRC complaining that Xyz doesn't work
will it be easy to tell if it is flatpak Xyz or pacman Xyz?

I've been around Linux since the days of tarballs and dependency hell. I am
suspicious of new package managers that promise to be all sunshine and roses. 

If you can direct me to detailed technical documentation. Such as an RFC or
equivalent. I'll be more then happy to put in the time to study it and learn.
It may go a long way to answering the above questions. So far all the
documentation I find smells more of marketing talk ("Trust us it's great.. It's
like X but with the safety of Y.." type talk). I want to know where things get
stored? the hardlinks that were briefly mentioned being created in the "under
the hood section" Are those hard links in system Dirs? if someone installs
pacman "thing" and then installs flatpak "thing" how does the system know which
to run or does one overwrite the other. Etc.

I'm also a big time minimalist. I only launch X grudgingly So if I have one
perfectly good package manager, There has to be a really clear reason for me to
think its a good idea to add another. I totally get that for you it is a
fantastic development aid. Cool, great. But it is also exactly the type of
thing that new adopters use to shot themselves in the foot. And thus should
only be added cautiously.

I should also note that I an not (yet) and Parabola maintainer or Developer. I
have no official say in this to add/not to add. But I do spend many hours
helping folks in IRC (well not compared to bill-auger but that guy is a
machine! :)  ). And, lacking detailed technical specifications, my mind
naturally goes to all the things that could go wrong.




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