this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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I know a lot of people enjoy flatpak, and I enjoyed it for a couple apps that had annoying update processes in other package managers, but I'm really not impressed with it overall. Maybe it's an unpopular opinion
Nah, it's pretty popular. Flatpack for the things you can't / won't use your regular package manager is the most common behavior.
Noob question: lately I've been using flatpaks for most things because of the packaged dependencies. I am under the impression that as you add and remove programs over time, you'll run into less issues with flatpak than with the distro package manager because the dependencies will come and go with the flatpaks and not sit in the host accumulating my mistakes. Am I wrong about this?
Any package manager worth its CPU cycles should take care of orphaned dependencies for you. Whether your package manager is decent or not is matter of heated debate, but the problem of orphaned dependencies has been largely solved.
TLDR, you're likely wrong about it. You're also paying to have a neat filesystem by using more storage (which is cheap, spend away), memory (a bit or a big bit, depending), and performance (there are comparisons online, only you can decide if it's significant for you).
Now, my opinion is that you're overtaxing yourself. The reason you mentioned for adopting flatpack is better addressed by familiarizing yourself with your main package manager. People that defend widespread use of flatpacks usually have other reasons (mostly newer versions, faster bug fixes and security fixes, etc.).
The combination of which distribution and how to use side-loaded software isn't a one size fits all. There are pros and cons to each approach, and they differ based on your needs, your distro, your threats...
Thanks for answering! I'll do some reading on how package managers work.
Good luck. That's like "reading on how software works".