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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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I have a question about flatpak (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I see that it can be slower because of having all the dependencies included with the flatpak itself instead of relying solely on whats installed on the system. I read that this means it isolates or sandboxes itself from the rest of the system.

Does this not mean that it can't infect the rest of the system even if it had malware?

I have seen people say that it isnt good for security because sometimes they force you to use a specific version of certain dependencies that often times are outdated but I'm wondering why that would matter if it was truly sandboxed and isolated.

Do they mean that installing flatpak itself is a security risk or that also specific flatpaks can be security risks themselves?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't think speed is an issue. They're larger but all software loads dependencies from disk, flatpaks just have them bundled into a different location.

Snap did have some loading time issues but in terms of performance, I don't think there was much measurable difference.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Ohai, let's load our own individual copy of everything separately. Since - we hope - it's all bult from pristine sources and unlikely to match versions, all that static code load isn't shared with anything else.

It's gonna load slower, take up buckets of space, and not care whether it's some crusty old thing with sploits aplenty.

I miss when we had mentors to remind us not only How to be better, but also Why. My mentor was like if obi-wan was born in Dublin. His sarcasm cut deep if you could parse what he was saying.