# What is Snap, Flatpak, etc?

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**on (most) Linux Distros, there's some sort of "Package manager"**, a tool used by the system to manage applications and other things installed on the system

Though, these package managers usually aren't very good for installing things per-user, or sandboxing, and permissions, and are usually very specific to one distro

So, a couple of other ways to install software got made

<span style="font-size:23px;">**Flatpak**</span> is what most Linux Distros chose to include, it's strengths over normal packages include:
- **They are sandboxed** — Nothing you don't want apps to access can be accessed.
- **They have a permissions system** — You decide what apps can, and can't do.
- **They work on any Linux Distro** — It doesn't matter if you're using Ubuntu, Debian, Arch or anything else, you get the same apps.
- **They can be installed for each user individually** — No System-Wide installs, unless you want that.
- **It's consistent across Distros** — Developers will need to spend less time supporting tons of distros, instead they can just use Flatpak
- **Anyone can open a "Flatpak Remote"** — Anyone can build their own App Store, using Flatpak

<span style="font-size:23px;">**Snap**</span> is a way to install apps made by canonical, the people which make Ubuntu. it supports many of the same things that Flatpak supports. *Though, Snap has many downsides as it's developed with Servers in mind first, not with Desktops:*
- **Snaps cannot be modified when installed** — The program files are read-only
- **Snaps only have one store** — You cannot open and maintain your own app-stores with Snap
- **Snaps have less desktop integration** — You'll often face issues regarding themes, or drag n' drop
- **They force auto-updates** — even if you don't want those
- **They're slow** — Due to how snap is made, it takes longer for apps to start, especially on first boot

<span style="font-size:23px;">**Appimages**</span> are a portable format, which also have many of the same attributes that Flatpak and Snap do, though, they have some issues of their own:

- **Desktop Integration isn't optimal** --- It still works better than snap, but some issues might still arise, like how apps won't automatically get added to your Menu/Search
- **They are usually larger than if you had used Flatpak/Snap** --- Due to the fact that everything is bundled in one file, it can't share commonly used components

*[Linux Distribution]: An Operating System made using Linux
*[Linux Distributions]: Operating Systems made using Linux
*[Linux Distros]: Operating Systems made using Linux
*[Linux Distro]: An Operating System made using Linux
*[Wayland]: A modern Display Server Protocol, which is aimed at replacing X.org
*[ootb]: Out Of The Box (By Default)
*[PipeWire]: Software for Multimedia processing on Linux
*[PipeWire-Pulse]: An addition to Pipewire, which adds Audio functionality compatible with PulseAudio
*[PulseAudio]: An older Audio implementation used on Linux, which has been mostly replaced by PipeWire
*[Offline Upgrades]: Upgrades/Updates, which reboot the PC to apply