With its skyrocketing popularity, Flatpak has been widely adopted by most Linux distributions. It allows developers to package their applications in a way that makes them easily distributable and usable across multiple Linux distributions without worrying about dependencies or compatibility issues.
Fedora is a distro that has always been committed to providing users with the latest and most innovative software technologies. However, until now, its users have had some limitations when using Flathub. Fortunately, this will change with the next release, Fedora 38.
Fedoraโs Current Flathub Situation
Since Fedora 35, the distro has included a Flatpak definition for Flathub as a third-party software repository. This functionality allows users to enable a selection of software repos that external organizations host. However, Fedoraโs Flathub repository (maintained by Fedora devs) is a vastly reduced version of the original one, containing only a small number of apps.
Users had to explicitly allow it during GNOME Initial Setup or via the GNOME Software app. Those who do not opt-in do not see any content from Flathub.
However, this will all change with the release of Fedora 38, when users can use the full potential of all Flathub content.
Fedora 38 Will Offer Unfiltered Flathub Access
A proposal was made and approved that Fedora 38 provide users with unfiltered Flathub as a third-party repo so that you can get everything on Flathub and not just the Fedora Flatpaks.
This is not the first time such a proposal has been made, as the same proposal was made for the current Fedora 37 release, which was previously rejected by FESCo (Fedora Engineering Steering Committee). Anyway, the approval is now a fact that will only benefit this widely used Linux distribution.
So, this change would remove the filtering from Fedora’s Flathub offering, allowing users to use the third-party repositories feature to enable a full version of Flathub. In other words, when you open GNOME Software after opting into third-party software, all of the apps available on Flathub will appear in search results.
At the same time, Flathub packages will be picked by default in the graphical software manager app only when no Fedora package is available.
This move represents a significant step forward for Fedora, which has always been committed to providing users with the latest and most innovative software technologies. With this new feature, Fedora 38 will offer users an even more comprehensive array of Flathub applications to choose from, not just a curated set, all of which will be available directly from the Flathub repository.
It currently offers approximately 2,000 applications, many of which are unavailable in the Fedora repositories. This contains popular proprietary software and many open-source apps maintained by their developers on Flathub. So this change will make it easier for Fedora users to gain access to this resource.
All we have to do now is wait for Fedora 38, which is scheduled for release at the end of April. More details on the proposal can be found here, and approval is here. And finally, if you want to become a true command-line wizard by fully managing Flatpak packages from the terminal, check out our guide on the subject.
