Upstreams, Snaps, Flatpaks and Feren OS
This post is regarding the upstream announcement found at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-flavor-packaging-defaults/34061, and the plans Feren OS has regarding the Snap and Flatpak application packaging formats, currently aimed for implementation in Feren OS 2023.07.
The plan for Feren OS 2023.07 and onwards
No pre-installed Snap planned
Since this is the first question likely on users’ minds, I would like to confirm that there are no plans for current-day Feren OS to ever pre-install Snap application support.
However, the option to install Snap application support manually is not planned to ever be removed, either.
No more Flatpak pre-installation… for now
However, a planned change that will have a more significant effect on Feren OS is the removal of Flatpak from Feren OS’s pre-installations. This is a planned change long in the making, in order to save space in Feren OS’s default installation, as Feren OS currently makes no use of Flatpak anyway.
This is not related to the change made by upstream, as Feren OS is not an official flavour of our current upstream. That being said, if Feren OS ever starts pre-installing an application from a Flatpak repository, Feren OS will pre-install Flatpak again.
This change has not been done yet as without the other upcoming changes to Feren OS, this change would be largely detrimental to the user experience.
Optional anti-install blockades for Snap and Flatpak
Now for the controversial plan. In a certain Operating System, the ability to install Snap application support was blocked, citing concerns about non-consensual installations. However, removing that blockade requires usage of advanced utilities most users will be unfamiliar with.
In Feren OS, the plan is to implement this blockade… on both Snap and Flatpak*, to similarly prevent non-consensual installations, except unlike its inspiration, these blockades are planned to only be present when Snap and Flatpak application support are not manually installed, and…
Freedom of source selection
Taking notes from another specific Operating System, the plan for Feren OS is to make it so you can turn on Snap and Flatpak application support, right from Store’s settings, as if there was not a blockade in the first place.
Additionally, Konsole users should not have their workflows be affected by this change, as there are plans to integrate blockade removal/reinstating into the existing Snap and Flatpak installation/removal workflows.
To a regular user, application sourcing should not have to matter
For most regular users, application sourcing does, and should not have to, matter — they just want to get an application from a trustworthy source, and install and use it — then, if it works it works. However, there is not just one source for everything, and there likely never will be.
As part of the planned changes for Feren OS, the upcoming Store is therefore planned to add an option to let Store decide the best possible source of each application for you, instead, in an effort to tackle this issue.
To visually convey this planned option, here are a few mockups as this option has not been implemented yet:
Package transitioning
Finally, another possibly controversial aspect — package transitioning.
Store
While not implemented yet, as the desired implementation is still being figured out, Feren OS’s Store is planned to let you know about, and perform, package transitioning when necessary.
For example, this mockup shows what is planned to happen during a Major Update that causes some applications to change sources, and an application to no longer be available:
This planned move is to ensure that Feren OS is fully transparent about what happens to the applications they have installed on their system, as well as giving the user full control on what happens to them.
This is also planned to serve a secondary purpose, such as transitioning users to a supported source when a Flatpak reaches ‘end of life’ prematurely.
Mozilla Firefox
However, for plans that have already come to fruition, before making this post: Mozilla Firefox package transitioning.
Even though Mozilla had Canonical make Firefox a Snap in Ubuntu, as per their distribution agreement, Feren OS 2023.07’s firefox package will install Mozilla Firefox from Flathub instead of unofficial repositories, PPAs, or the Snap Store.
This change will be fully explained in the release announcement for the stable release of Feren OS 2023.07 (or later if delayed further), but the short of it is that the Flathub version is 100% official too, users likely already are on the Flathub version anyway, and optional configs and future integrations are only available for the Flathub version.
What should probably be stressed here, however, is that unlike the way our upstream implemented their package transitioning, Feren OS 2023.07's firefox package depends on the firefox-flatpak package, giving the change transparency for those who do not read these announcements.
Epiphany (GNOME Web)
Finally, similarly to Mozilla Firefox, Feren OS 2023.07’s epiphany-browser is planned to install Epiphany from Flathub, instead of Ubuntu’s repositories.
This change, since there is no upstream-related incentive to do this (unlike Mozilla Firefox), was therefore made into a poll on all of Feren OS’s social media places, with these results:
- Discord: 100% voted Yes (32 votes)
- Twitter: 85.7% voted Yes (21 votes)
- Mastodon: 100% voted Yes (4 votes)
Those who participated in these polls have overwhelmingly voted in support of this change, hence it will be implemented in time for Feren OS 2023.07 Alpha’s release, with a new epiphany-flatpak package planned as the dependency of epiphany-browser.
Just like the other package transitions before this, Epiphany’s transition is planned to migrate your existing Epiphany settings, cache, and other information to Epiphany from Flathub.
* Performing a Major Update to Feren OS 2023.07(?) will not cause you to lose Flatpak or Snap application support — they won’t be blocked, nor removed, if they are currently installed when doing the update.
