I am currently using Linux Mint (after a long stint of using MX Linux) after learning it handles Nvidia graphics cards flawlessly, which I am grateful for. Whatever grief I have given Ubuntu in the past, I take it back because when they make something work, it is solid.
Anyways, like most distros these days, Flatpaks show up alongside native packages in the package manager / app store. I used to have a bias towards getting the natively packed version, but these days, I am choosing Flatpaks, precisely because I know they will be the latest version.
This includes Blender, Cura, Prusaslicer, and just now QBittorrent. I know this is probably dumb, but I choose the version based on which has the nicer icon.
I must be lucky to not have run into drugs, but damn it is probably inevitable. Okay, I will find a better solution. Appimages are apparently the superior version of this concept.
Well… not really. I like them, but flatpak has sandbox and much wider scope. Flatpak also has official repository you can trust, while app images are usually created by random people. Use only ones from original developers or sources you trust.
We still have problems to solve.
I am definitely using Flatpaks for large, basically institutionalized programs like Blender, Godot engine, Cura, Prusaslicer… Still, I should double check.
Authoring seems very easy, and I have no idea if there is a filtering/auditing policy, so thank you. I will be more careful.