this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] boredsquirrel 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Have a look at my flatpak repo list with instructions on that

The question is, do they change the remote or just hide the apps?

I currently use 2 flathub remotes, the verified (named flathub-v) and the unfiltered one. When installing from CLI I can see if it is verified (2 possible remotes show up). I hope COSMIC store and KDE Discover will show the verification check soon.

I use nearly only verified Flatpaks (a list of recommended ones is here, will soon update)

But a few popular ones are not, like VLC (developers dont know Flatpak, should get an introduction by the current maintainer), Inkscape, Spotify, Steam, Bitwarden, Signal, Torbrowser launcher, Blender, Calibre, and more (excluding Chromium Browsers, use the native versions for security reasons) are all missing.

Important things to consider:

  • distro packages are nearly always unverified i.e. maintained by distro packagers instead of upstream
  • spotify flatpak is not verified, but the flatpak is securely packaged. Mint has a deb repo, and that proprietary piece of malware could do whatever they like with your entire system
  • flatpaks are very often more secure, at least they have some security mechanism that can be easily manually hardened. Unlike firejail or bubblejail, which are very complex.
[–] bitfucker@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The difference with the distro package is that you are already using the distro anyway. If you cannot trust the distro package then the whole distro itself is untrusted. Or depending on the repo provided, maybe the whole repo not the whole distro.

[–] boredsquirrel 0 points 4 months ago

There is a difference between the packages shipped by default, and any random package in the repo.

In this case, Ubuntus universe repo will have less supported packages.