Changes/UnfilteredFlathub

Unfiltered Flathub

This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux.
This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee.

Summary

The flatpak remote for Flathub will have no filtering, making all the Flathub content available in GNOME Software and via the flatpak commandline.

Owner

• Name: Workstation WG

• Email: mclasen@redhat.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 38
• Last updated: 2022-10-13
• Devel list thread
• FESCo issue: #2828
• Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
• Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Fedora includes a flatpak repo definition for Flathub in the fedora-flathub-remote package. So far, this remote was filtered by an allowlist that only made a limited subset of software from Flathub available. We've been told that it is ok for us to remove the filtering and make all of Flathub available.

The filtering mechanism itself will still be there, and it will be possible for us to reinstate a filter via a package update, should the need arise in the future.

The Flathub remote is available to users who opt-in to enabling third-party software repositories in either GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software. Users who do not opt in will not see anything from Flathub.

In case of overlaps, GNOME Software will prefer Fedora flatpaks over rpms over Flathub flatpaks. It is always possible for the user to manually select a different source for individual applications.

Feedback

This change proposal has previously been discussed here: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/300

Benefit to Fedora

More software will be easily available to Fedora users.

Additionally, the filtered Flathub has not been popular with users. Users have been confused and displeased that our Flathub remote contains only a small subset of Flathub, rather than the full Flathub. Dropping the filter will resolve this criticism.

Scope

• Proposal owners:
  • Remove the allowlist in /usr/share/flatpak/fedora-flathub.filter, or replace it with one that allows everything

• GNOME Software developers:
  • Land this change to fix preference order in g-s: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/merge_requests/1511
  • Make sure that the preference order works as desired on Silverblue as well, where we always want to prefer flatpaks over layering rpms. This is being discussed here: https://github.com/fedora-silverblue/issue-tracker/issues/354

• Release engineering: #Releng issue number
  • No work needed

• Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
• Alignment with Objectives:

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Existing Fedora installations with a configured Fedora Flathub remote will pick up the new, permissive filter.

How To Test

When third-party software is not enabled in GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software, search results from Flathub should not appear in GNOME Software.

When third-party software is enabled in GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software, search results from Flathub should appear.

User Experience

When opening GNOME Software, all the applications that are available on Flathub will show up in search results.

Where there are overlaps, Fedora content will be preferred over Flathub content.

Dependencies

No dependencies.

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: Reinstate the filtering we had in Fedora 36

• Contingency deadline: Beta

• Blocks release? No

Documentation

• fedora-third-party
• Flathub wiki
• Comparison of Fedora Flatpaks and Flathub remotes

Release Notes

The Fedora Flathub remote now exposes all content from Flathub, instead of only a small subset. Flathub is not enabled by default. To enable software from Flathub, turn on third-party software in GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software.