“Distributors entering Flatpakland”
https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/900210/e8afdb4d219e1468/
In which we learn (surprise!) that Fedora and openSUSE, supporters of #flatpak, will suddently provide all of Flathub to their users, including proprietary software.
As I wrote in a comment, I think we #FreeSoftware folks and #Guix in particular must address the shortcomings of traditional distros that make flatpak appear necessary. Instead we must design for practical user freedom.
The alternative is: more control for software vendors, or more power to users?
@civodul did the absence of proprietary software in system repositories ever affect anything, except by annoying users and forcing them to install from less reliable sources? I sincerely doubt it.
If someone wants to use proprietary software, they will, and making it harder is only going to annoy them. The best we can do is provide Flatpak in its entirety and clearly mark free and proprietary packages. At most, list/search only in free by default but enable the user to also include proprietary.
@Amikke Sure, users run the software they want, fortunately.
What’s wrong in my view is muddying the waters, thus not letting users make an informed choice.
When you add a line to /etc/apt/sources.list, you have to think for a minute: What are the implications? Why is it not the default? What’s this “freedom” thing they’re talking about?
Now you’re just getting a stream of binaries all alike.