What are the best cross-distribution package management systems for Linux?

Question

LinuxOpen SourceLinux distribution

What are the best cross-distribution package management systems for Linux?

3

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Considered

5

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Recs.

Oct 26, 2023

Last
Updated

3 Options Considered

Best cross-distribution package management systems for Linux	Price	Default Repository	Initial Maintainer
-- Flatpak	-	FlatHub.org	Alex Larsson
-- AppImage	-	-	-
-- Nix package manager	Free	-	-

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score 1 · Answer 1

Flatpak

Top Pro

Flexible runtime management

You can install a lot of runtimes for different apps, making applications a lot more compatible while still allowing some applications to share their runtimes. See More

Top Con

Bloated

Due to the way Flatpack handles packaging, this can lead to a large cache being created which quickly inflates to unreasonable sizes. Not only this, but using flatpack requires a large chunk of space to be reserved for it's own file hierarchy. See More

Specs

Default Repository:FlatHub.org

Initial Maintainer:Alex Larsson

Top Pro

Application sandboxing

All applications are limited to a set of predefined permissions, enhancing privacy and security. See More

Top Pro

Doesn't bog system down like snaps

Plus it's not proprietary. See More

Top Pro

Cross-distribution

You can install flatpak packages on any distro you want. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 2

AppImage

Top Pro

Easy deployment of software

It just works across different distros. See More

Top Con

No automatic updates

You have to re-download the application to update it. you can use https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageUpdate but it is beta level code (at least that's what it says on the readme) See More

slantstuff's Experience

Works well, needs a little fiddling sometimes (for making the appimage executable, or adding it to the system menu). See More

Top Pro

No integration into the system

Leaves your system untouched. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Just execute the package to run the software. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 3

Nix package manager

Top Pro

Uses binary caches (that are provided) so you don't have to build anything locally

Due to its functional nature, it can just download a binary package with the same hash if its available and it'll get the very same package as you'd build locally (to the last bit that is). See More

Top Con

nix-channel is buggy and deprecated

see: https://github.com/nix-dot-dev/nix.dev/issues/16 and: https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/3381#issuecomment-598747462 you can work around it by using "nix-env -f" or the NIX_PATH environment variable See More

Specs

packages:15858

requires sudo:no

Top Pro

Packages installed with Nix don't overlap with packages installed in /usr/local

Since packages are stored in the /nix directory, it won't overlap with anything you'd install in /usr/local or wherever else. See More

Top Pro

It's easy to revert any change in your environment

Every time your profile changes, you get a new generation of your profile and older generations are kept around, so you can easily (and atomically) revert to older version of your profile. See More

See All

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What are the best cross-distribution package management systems for Linux?

3 Options Considered

Flatpak

My Recommendation for Flatpak

My Recommendation for Flatpak

Flexible runtime management

Bloated

Application sandboxing

Doesn't bog system down like snaps

Cross-distribution

AppImage

My Recommendation for AppImage

My Recommendation for AppImage

Easy deployment of software

No automatic updates

No integration into the system

Easy to use

Nix package manager

My Recommendation for Nix package manager

My Recommendation for Nix package manager

Uses binary caches (that are provided) so you don't have to build anything locally

nix-channel is buggy and deprecated

Packages installed with Nix don't overlap with packages installed in /usr/local

It's easy to revert any change in your environment

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