Canonical removes Flatpak from official Ubuntu flavors.

Canonical Requires Ubuntu Remixes to Remove Flatpak Support

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has issued an official edict that all approved Ubuntu remixes must remove Flatpak support as of the next release. This change will take effect with the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) release, due out in late April 2023.

Canonical has stated that Snap, its own official cross-platform packaging format, is a more capable tool, as it supports server apps on machines with no GUI, which Flatpak cannot do. Additionally, Snap is the only packaging format in Ubuntu Core. Canonical has its own official flavor, Ubuntu with the GNOME desktop, which is the “real thing.”

Ubuntu Flavors and Canonical Control

The various Ubuntu flavors, such as Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Unity, and Xubuntu, are not Canonical products, but they must meet specific requirements in order to be officially sanctioned and endorsed by Canonical. One of the requirements is that all the components must come from the Ubuntu repositories. Another is that releases must be synced with those of the primary distribution.

Canonical’s Reasoning for Removing Flatpak Support

Canonical has explained the reasoning behind its decision to remove Flatpak support as follows: when a new packaging technology is provided by default, there is an expectation that the distribution provides community support and is invested in contributing to development to resolve issues. Canonical believes that this creates fragmentation instead of focusing on improving the technologies chosen for the distribution.

Canonical’s Stance on Snap

Canonical has stated that to maintain this focus while also providing user choice, Ubuntu and its flavors consider debs and snap the default experience. Users have the freedom of choice to get their software from other sources, including Flatpak. A way to install these alternatives is and will continue to be, available for installation from the Ubuntu archive with a simple command.

Flatpak’s Limitations

While there are Flatpak-only distros, such as Endless OS and Fedora spins, they still need to include OStree to handle OS updates as Flatpak cannot do this. On machines with sophisticated file systems, such as Btrfs in Fedora, it is possible to use compression to reduce the space used by duplicate files inside Flatpaks. However, each Snap package is a single file, so these sorts of features do not give any benefit.

Downsides of Multiple Cross-Platform Packages

It is important to note that there are downsides to having multiple cross-platform packages installed. They do not understand one another’s dependency mechanisms, which leads to significant duplication of large packages. Updates also become more tricky, as apt commands do not update Flatpak apps. Flatpak users must update their apps manually, while Snap updates are scheduled as a background task by default.

Running Your Own Snap Store

Despite these downsides, it is possible to run your own Snap store, and there is nothing proprietary in the APIs. Canonical’s Snapcraft is the only official Snap store, but it is possible to create your own using tools that are available in Ubuntu’s repositories.

Conclusion

Canonical’s decision to remove Flatpak support from approved Ubuntu remixes in the next release has caused some controversy among users who prefer Flatpak over Canonical’s own packaging format, Snap. Nonetheless, Canonical has stated that Snap is the future of Ubuntu packaging, and it will continue to invest in its development.