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

Fedora Workstation's third party repo feature allows users to enable a selection of 3rd party repos. This selection has included a filtered version of Flathub since F35. This change would remove the filtering from our Flathub offering, so that users can enable a complete version of Flathub using the third party repositories feature. Flathub packages will only be offered by default when no Fedora package is available.

Owner

• Name: Workstation WG

• Email: mclasen@redhat.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora Linux 38
• Last updated: 2022-11-29
• 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

Since F35, Fedora has included a Flatpak repo definition for Flathub in the fedora-flathub-remote package. This Flathub remote is available to users who opt-in to third-party software repositories in either GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software. Users who do not opt in do not see any content from Flathub.

The current Flathub remote is filtered by an allowlist, to only make a limited subset of software from Flathub available.

This change includes two key elements:

1. Remove the allowlist from the Flatpak remote, so that when a user opts in, they gain access to all Flathub content and not just a small selection.
2. Adjust GNOME Software so that it uses the following priority order when deciding which package to offer by default:
   1. Fedora Flatpaks
   2. RPMs
   3. Flathub Flatpaks

This will mean that, when using the graphical software manager, Flathub Flatpaks will only be selected by default when there is no Fedora Flatpak or RPM.

Other details:

• In GNOME Software, users will continue to be able to manually select a different source for individual applications.
• The filtering mechanism will remain in place, and it will be possible to reinstate a filter via a package update, should the need arise in the future.
• It has been indicated that it is legally acceptable for us to remove the filtering from the Flathub that we make available for users to opt into.
• The UI for enabling the third party repos clearly states that they contain proprietary software.
• GNOME Software shows information about whether apps are open source or proprietary, so that users can decide whether they want to install them or not.

Feedback

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

Benefit to Fedora

Flathub currently hosts nearly 2,000 apps, including many apps which are not included in the Fedora repositories. This includes popular proprietary apps, but also many open source apps which are maintained in Flathub by their developers. This change will make it easier for Fedora users to access this resource.

For users who already use Flathub, this change will make it easier to setup.

Additionally, out of the box application availability is one of the key metrics on which Fedora is judged in comparison to other distros. Having the option to easily enable Flathub will put us in a much more competitive position with regards to our rivals, and will make it easier for people to recommend Fedora as a user friendly Linux distro.

This change will also be a significant improvement over the existing filtered version of Flathub that we offer. This has received a lot of negative feedback, with users being confused by the limited subset of Flathub that we provide.

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.
• The default app selected by GNOME Software should be as follows:

Fedora Flatpak?	RPM?	Flathub Flatpak	Default package
✓	✓	✓	Fedora Flatpak
✗	✓	✓	RPM
✗	✗	✓	Flathub Flatpak
✓	✓	✗	Fedora Flatpak
✓	✗	✗	Fedora Flatpak
✗	✓	✗	RPM

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.