word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

EDX-0 · 2026-05-24 08:16:01

from the mouth of Jorge Castro flathub org member, and the motion has support from reddit users.

if he ain't just bullshitting then anyone whom depends on software only available through flatpaks will have to help maintaining a fork of flatpak that does not depend on systemd and maybe even a repository of builds of flatpaks that do not need systemd, maybe even a fork of the whole of flathub.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments … n_systemd/

steve_v · 2026-05-24 09:42:50

Does anyone care? Flatpak is nothing but a cunning device for turning [user laziness] into [profit for storage device manufacturers].
The only "universal package format" worth a dime right now is AppImage, and even that is of thoroughly dubious benefit when build-from-source is (and ever will-be) a thing.

golinux · 2026-05-24 14:22:51

What the heck is flatpak?

blackhole · 2026-05-24 19:06:15

Flatpak is Flatpack, but if you leave the c out it's way cooler and the fanbois love that...

Last edited by blackhole (2026-05-24 19:18:06)

ruenoak · 2026-05-24 21:43:10

I use a few Flatpaks and same for Appimages for the software I need the latest versions for. They are convenient way to get new software and I am kind of neutral about these package formats as long as they work and don't blow up mys system!
If Flatpaks go the ways of hard coding systemd then so be it, I wont use them.

What I find disappointing is the lock in walled garden attitude by certain groups in FOSS regarding software, and the gaslighting when you question it. This in my mind is opposite to the spirit of FOSS and sounds more like the world of closesource to me.

Also what worries me is this attitude seems to be growing, and has taken on a very political stance in recent years. I have never thought of my software as left, right, up or down or any other angle!
We are creating two camps that over time will become incompatible with each other. As the saying goes United we stand divided we fall.

pcalvert · 2026-05-24 22:51:44

Flatpak is something that I had already decided that I am not going to use, and this development helps confirm that my decision was a good one.

A possible alternative to Flatpak is Nix, the package manager for NixOS. Although NixOS uses systemd, Nix can be made to work without it. For example, on Alpine Linux it works with OpenRC.

greenjeans · 2026-05-24 22:59:52

Great post @ruenoak!

Off-topic: I also am fond of all those things in your signature, but I do try to be Chaotic Good when I can.

coder-hase · Yesterday 18:57:33

This should be no big surprise. In the end it's all Redhat stuff, isn't? I mean as far as I understand they "own" systemd, Gnome, Wayland (?), flatpak, util-linux ... 80% of the relevant Linux user space?

ralph.ronnquist · Yesterday 23:21:23

I think it's a mind set thing, whether something is "owned" or a "commons".

But I certainly share a belief that the people working on those things typically where employed by RH at the same time. Possibly many of the current maintainers are as well.

In my mind though, when you contribute to a commons it becomes a commons. The commons does not have an owner. It's a mind set thing.

zapper · Today 00:19:51

@EDX-0

Sounds like the garbage mentality is going to work...

Redhat devs... corporate linux devs...

One word:

Starts with A

means butthole.

*sigh*

EDX-0 · Today 00:47:22

personally i think it is a shame as flatpak is/was a great tool to supplement software when some package is not available or has usability downgrades in a distro, as examples i still use flatpak for primehack (a fork-mod of the dolphin gamecube and wii emulator that focuses on modern fps style mouse+keyboard and gamepad controls for metroid prime) which is so niche i doubt it will ever be packaged for debian, zoom since i really don't want the zoom software to be a too integrated part of my system when i've needed to take video conferences, adwsteamgtk which lets me theme steam to look like a gtk program using my custom stylesheet for adw-gtk3

i also use krita and kdenlive from flatpak and was counting on flatpak as a way to keep using krita and kdenlive after they drop support for x11 since the nice cool thing about flatpak is you can install older builds of the flatpak than the most recent release...

some other programs i use flatpak for cuz i've been lazy i can switch to the debian package, like obs studio, retroarch which i've been using from flatpak since the debian package had the online core downloader disabled and the emulator core list was heavily curated now it is just a matter of configuration altho annoying the default is to disable the core downloader and not have the emulator core dir set to a user writeable one but meh is just config, one that will be annoying long term in the future is the gnome-authenticator which in spite of being a seemingly simple program is fully commited to libadwaita so when that drops x11 the program is kill for my environment even from the debian repo and alternatives aren't great as otpclient currently is a gtk3 app on the repos but upstream has transitioned to libadwaita too leaving only cotp which is TUI but also rust, which here is the least of issues really but still makes me want to write my own tui program for that....

tangent aside, perhaps this could be the call to fork flatpak, i mean the current software works so a tentative fork would be really just a maintenance one rather than rushing to add every feature under the sun, question is if other systemd free distros like void linux, artix and chimaera would be interested to collab on forking flatpak and possibly even the flathub just to keep the convenience that currently exists, no idea about alpine as the distro is continually moving towards having greater systemd compatibility even now

Last edited by EDX-0 (Today 00:54:54)

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#1 2026-05-24 08:16:01

word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#2 2026-05-24 09:42:50

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#3 2026-05-24 14:22:51

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#4 2026-05-24 19:06:15

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#5 2026-05-24 21:43:10

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#6 2026-05-24 22:51:44

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#7 2026-05-24 22:59:52

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#8 Yesterday 18:57:33

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#9 Yesterday 23:21:23

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#10 Today 00:19:51

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

#11 Today 00:47:22

Re: word is that flatpak 2.0 WILL depend on systemd

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