Does anyone know if Ubuntu Touch supports flatpaks? I’ve been following the project and think what they’re doing is super cool for mobile Linux. I’ve even been thinking about installing it on one of my devices just to try it out at some point.
One problem though. Does it support flatpak? If not, that might be a deal breaker. All the best mobile friendly apps are easily available through flathub. It’s also my preferred way to get them since snap is not as good and natives packages are bound to be outdated given Ubuntu Touch’s current version.
It’s just there’s a severe lack of communication regarding it. I’ve never seen a single flatpak app mentioned in their videos, posts, or documentation. I’m sure since it’s based on Ubuntu the package exists but it seems like they aren’t on board with flatpak generally. I’ve seen mention of getting snaps and they have an app store but there’s no flatpak support on it.
I don’t mind the terminal but a graphical interface would be much preferred.
Canonical makes Ubuntu, and also the Snap Package Manager. They’ve been trying to push Snap for years, which is why Flatpak is an alternative to Snap. You won’t find Canonical/Ubuntu docs spreading Flatpak.
Canonical dropped Ubuntu Touch ages ago. The team running UBPorts doesn’t have any interest in the Snap store the way normal Ubuntu does.
The default store uses Clickable packages, which are like normal packages but with permissions and such. Confinement is based on AppArmor rather than Snap.
UBPorts even has a demo/proof of concept for publishing mobile apps as Flatpak’s on desktop, so they do have an interest in Flatpaks at the very least.
There’s a good reason UB Touch doesn’t use Flatpak, and it’s the same reason iOS and Android don’t use Flatpak: the system wasn’t written to support it. Theoretically it’s possible to combine the right support libraries and add OS level wrappers, but it doesn’t work like that at the moment.
This is a community project though. They aren’t affiliated with canonical I think as they’re not an official spin.
The footer of the Ubuntu Touch site:
Not sure what you thought you were into, but…
But this is on their faq
Right, but just because you have people maintaining the project, it’s still based on Canonical’s Ubuntu, therefore Snap by default. Take it up with their community if you don’t like that, that’s the point of community outreach.
I’m not saying I have any problem with it, it’s their work after all. I was just asking a question since I couldn’t find anything that clarified the project’s position. And tbh I would feel very uncomfortable entering their channels, asking if they support flatpak and then leaving. So I figured I would ask on lemmy and leave the information for all who were equally curious.