Official Flatpak support on Linux
Flatpak is a modern packaging format for Linux distributions, with the advantages of:
- working consistently across a wide array of distributions (thus making it much easier for developers to support any Linux distro)
- relative independence from the underlying system, making it the only distribution channel for immutable distros like Fedora Silverblue and Steam OS
- higher security due to its sandboxing
As such, it'd be great if it was officially supported by Proton for all its native applications.
It's true that the sandbox could potentially pose some limits to the app that might not be solvable via portals yet, but fortunately, portals can be proposed by the community — so Proton could actively help move the Flatpak ecosystem forward!
Proton's been able to support a range of other operating systems that also sandbox apps in one way or another, so it should be able to support sandboxed Flatpaks on Linux too.
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Hugo commented
This would be great to have for the proton mail app too, as it would make installs for many Linux distros a lot easier
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Matej commented
These days it is very common to package applications across linux distros into flatpaks or AppImages as its easier to maintain as current state where is only avalible for RHEL/Fedora, debian, no arch support
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Samir commented
This! While there are community flatpaks for the mail bridge and VPN, I would much prefer official and verified flatpaks directly from Proton.
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JWF commented
I give full support for this idea. In order to achieve adoption in the Linux desktop market, it is not enough to only provide RPMs and DEBs anymore. The emerging containerized environments for securely running sandboxed desktop apps are attractive for security and privacy reasons. To win the RPM market, you need Flatpak/Flathub. To win the DEB market, you likely need Canonical Snaps. As a Fedora Linux user, I give my full support to Flatpaks because this would enable me to adopt Proton Mail for Linux as a daily desktop app. I will likely not install it on bare metal, even though I could, because sometimes I need to access my email in an environment where I am not always `root` or have sudoer privileges to install new software.