Feature : Modern cross-distribution install on Linux via Flatpak or AppImage support

[dheurtev]

Feature

• Adopt modern cross-distribution packaging practices for Linux via Flatpak or AppImage support.

Discussion

While it is ok that you are providing a Linux version as a zip file and a Ubuntu version as a snap file, snap is really frowned upon by a very large portion of the Linux community. Snap is pretty much used only by the Ubuntu family with ties to Canonical. It is not uncommon for users to even remove snap from their system.

As a result, you are very likely to miss a large number of potential users (including devs and corporate clients) using other distributions.

Solution

You should adopt more modern cross-distribution practices.

Flatpak is the default choice of many for GUI software as it covers 37 distributions. The immense majority of the Linux users are covered including Ubuntu users who chose to have Flatpak installed instead of snap.

Another more practical and modern technique to package GUI Linux software is AppImage. It make it much easier to maintain for devs and as easy for users as installing a GUI software on Windows or MacOS. It does not require distribution package installation by the user. You would then need to ship the appImage will all of your dependencies.

Market coverage of main distribution families

In short :

| Distribution family | snap | flatpak | AppImage | | Ubuntu (+ derivatives) | Y | U | Y | | Debian (+ Mint) | U | Y | Y | | Fedora | U | Y | Y | | RedHat (+ derivatives and clones) | U | Y | Y | | Arch (+ derivatives) | U | Y | Y | | OpenSuse | U | Y | Y | | Gentoo | U | Y | Y |

U : User installation required of the distribution tool