I run Debian 13 Stable with KDE Plasma, and have Flathub enabled on KDE’s Discover software store. I have a slight idea of the difference between the two: that Debian packages share system libraries and are therefore lighter in storage but do require password to access those shared libraries and could therefore become a security hazard if installing from an untrusted source, while Flatpaks have all they need and don’t require password to install, being more secure that way, but, as a consequence, consume more storage. Also noticeable is the fact that, for some programmes, the Flatpak version tends to be more recent and it therefore becomes the obvious choice when looking for the latest software.
However, I was looking at the SuperTux game, and what’s curious about this is that both, the Debian package and the Flatpak are version 0.6.3, while consuming 6.7 and 259,9 MB of storage respectively.
So should the obvious choice here be the Debian package, or would you still go for the Flatpak? I am not asking this because I’m particularly interested on this game as much as to learn more about the two system packages and whether my assumptions are correct or I am missing something.
Thank you and have a nice weekend!
My personal rule of thumb is that if it interacts with the OS or filesystem deeply, native is probably better. E.g. IDEs, cli programs, browsers, Steam etc.
Apps that do a simple things are likely to work perfectly fine on flatpak.
But the problem is that there are outliers in each case. You should pick one and be ready to switch if things don’t work properly.
This ^^ my rule of thumb is always using the zypper packages (I’m using openSUSE TumbleweedOS) I had troubles with some flatpacks before, but only one! It was enough for me to not return though xD still use flatpacks but only for less important apps. Not for steam, wine, etc.
This is effectively how I judge it as well. Only thing I would add is that more things can be Flatpaks (ie. Steam). As long as you know about and use Flatseal to change the permissions. For instance, giving Steam access to my games directory.