The developers of Gnome Software have floated the idea of dropping support for RPM packages entirely, in favor of Flatpaks.
Gnome Software is the software center for the Gnome desktop environment (DE), and is a popular option for other DEs that don’t have their own software center, such as Xfce. Gnome Software is especially front-and-center on Fedora Workstation, given the amount of overlap between Fedora and Gnome developers.
In a mailing list post, user tqcharm recently recommended that Gnome Software completely remove support for RPMs, the native format for apps in the Red Hat/Fedora world.
Since the consensus seems to be that RPMs should be at the end of the priority list, what about decoupling (removing) RPMs from GNOME Software completely?
This might seem to be a step back, but it would make GNOME Software more consistent between Workstation and Silverblue, and support Fedora in its goal to make Flatpaks the primary packaging option.
That would leave RPMs to be a choice of the more advanced users, who seem to prefer the powerful dnf over GNOME Software anyway.
With RPMs missing from GNOME Software, prioritizing package sources becomes easier too: be it Fedora Core > Flathub Verified (or Probably Safe) -> Fedora Extended -> Flathub Extended or similar.
Michael Catanzaro, a Red Hat engineer, as well as a prominent Fedora and Gnome developer, replied with the following:
Removing RPM applications is my long term goal, but I’m not sure how quickly we’ll be able to get there.
Flatpaks, as well as Snaps, are a containerized app format that bundles all the necessary dependencies within the app, rather than relying on the underlying system. This is similar to how applications work on macOS, and solve many of the dependency issues that can arise when trying to have the latest software on older, point release distros.
Despite the advantages they offer, Flatpaks still have some disadvantages. For example, Flatpaks are designed primarily with desktop apps in mind, and are not suited for command-line apps. Flatpaks can also take up more space than traditional apps, although this becomes less of a factor as more Flatpaks are installed, since Flatpaks can share dependencies among themselves.
In addition, many Linux users still prefer traditional app package formats, such as RPMs in the Red Hat/Fedora/openSUSE world and DEBs in the Debian/Ubuntu world. There is also the question of how Gnome Software would handle native packages on other Linux distros, such as Debian and Ubuntu-based distros.
Ultimately, Gnome developers have a longstanding reputation for removing functionality the vast majority of users consider important, such as maximize/minimize window buttons, desktop icons, and more. The philosophy has contributed to many users transitioning to KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, or Xfce, all of which maintain the traditional desktop paradigm.
If Gnome developers move forward with this plan, it’s a move that will likely alienate even more users.
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