Flatpak support

UbIx

125 pro votes are not much.

But this are mostly users which are directly missing them.
But most of the standard user use only a different browser if vivaldi is not available

As i know, no Flatpak package will be created.

Thaths totally not understandeable. So you will cancel the support of many Linux Distros which have not the ressources so support vivaldi in there repos.

Snap packages were planned, but the is no progress yet.

Snap is not a format, which will be a benefit for a standard user. In desktop systems they are to big and have many issues on older not so powerful devices. A reason more and more *buntu users switch to different distroy (at least in our LUG).

DoctorG

️ Are there maintainers to create and maintain such FlatPak?
Source can be fetched as as written in Install Linux snapshots on non-DEB/RPM distributions.
As i guess the work for Vivaldi Linux devs is too much to maintain them.

user1vivaldi

@DoctorG I think of these 2 formats, it makes a ton of more sense to create a Flatpak version because unlike Snap, Flatpak support is shipped on a lot more distributions and it will especially benefit the immutable distributions that are lately becoming more popular, on which Flatpak is the most straightforward way of installing software.

Personally, I think there is absolutely zero point in creating a Vivaldi Snap, because Snaps are mainly designed for Ubuntu, on which the regular Vivaldi .deb package works fine anyway. There are only a few other distributions that ship Snap support. One is Zorin OS (which is also based on Ubuntu) and Manjaro (which has Vivaldi in its repository).

So basically creating a Vivaldi Flatpak will benefit a lot of users, while creating a Vivaldi Snap will pretty much be a wasted effort.

DoctorG

@user1vivaldi Yes, it is better to have a format which is wide-spread.
The problem is that OS maintainer wants to create one, may be because it is commercial and not open-source.

Currently the Vivaldi devs may argue that 3 methods (DEB, RPM, shell install) to install Vivaldi are enough. That's where in personally (my opinion) agree.

I do not know why no person from Vivaldi Community(!) or Linux Community(!) wants to make a Flatpak.
I guess they do not want to invest time to create and update.

And i am not willing to study Flatpak documentation and try to build a Vivaldi Flatpak. Why? Less honor, no payment, much work.

user1vivaldi

@DoctorG Yeah, it's understandable. I wrote this simply because it's not the first time I've seen the intention to create a Vivaldi Snap, so as someone with decent knowledge about the nature of each of these formats, I just wanted to mention that a Flatpak version will benefit a lot more users.

DoctorG

crowdfunding?

You could start crowdfunding to pay a Linux user who creates and maintains a Flatpak for many distributions.

Stardust

@DoctorG said in Flatpak support:

I do not know why no person from Vivaldi Community(!) or Linux Community(!) wants to make a Flatpak.

there kinda was an attempt (see page 2), but I personally not interesting in non-official flatpaks..

@DoctorG said in Flatpak support:

125 pro votes are not much.

I just checked, Flatpak support is currently on #20 place of all Feature Requests, it's pretty high imo.

As i know, no Flatpak package will be created. Snap packages were planned, but the is no progress yet.

I don't see any Snap support feature requests and demands from the users

While [Flatpak support] feature request is at top 20!

DoctorG

@Stardust I think Snap was 2018 internally only a idea and never developed.

Flatpak is Top20? Sorry, i never had looked at the rank of requests.

DoctorG

DoctorG said in Flatpak support:

I do not know why no person from Vivaldi Community(!) or Linux Community(!) wants to make a Flatpak.

I see only these two github projects:

But i do not see if any person has tried to create and test such Flatpak, no comments on Issues of these project.
Sad, Vivaldi users want a feature, but such is not developed by 3rd party and tested by Vivaldi users.

I personally do not need a Flatpak, but if having more time to learn how to, i would had made a project in the past. But i fear, that could be invest much time, a one-woman-project and getting nothing back? No.

Stardust

@DoctorG said in Flatpak support:

I personally do not need a Flatpak, but if having more time to learn how to, i would had made a project in the past. But i fear, that could be invest much time, a one-woman-project and getting nothing back? No.

Our only hope is that one flatpak user in Vivaldi team

Stardust

@DoctorG said in Flatpak support:

Flatpak is Top20?

Yes, I checked yesterday by sorting Feature Requests by upvotes

But in my personal rating I would place it at #1

DoctorG

@Stardust Ah, ok, i had not used that new forum sort feature yet.

XLN

@DoctorG The one I made a couple of months ago works very well and it was extremely easy to set up. I basically just had to copy what other people had done with other flatpak chromium browsers (because they all have a flatpak package).

https://github.com/BuonHobo/com.vivaldi.stable

There is only one issue. Vivaldi downloads some codecs on first boot and that doesn't work (yet) inside the flatpak. It's probably a very easy problem to solve and I just need someone who knows flatpak and someone who knows how Vivaldi does that thing.

It would take very little (VERY little) effort for the vivaldi team to make a working flatpak package and it would help the linux community very much (VERY much).

Also Vivaldi is now the only browser that doesn't have a flatpak package so I'd say it's some kind of tech debt. They are about user empowerment and being feature rich. So making a flatpak aligns with their philosophy.

I'm honestly surprised (and disappointed) that we still don't have a flatpak.

For those who are not interested in a community supported flatpak:
The flatpak packaging is open source and it is very easy to see that no sketchy things are being done. It's basically a script that downloads Vivaldi's official .deb and anyone can verify.

Hadden89

@XLN said in Flatpak support:

Vivaldi downloads some codecs on first boot and that doesn't work (yet) inside the flatpak

This, maybe?

https://gist.github.com/ruario/995728dd8123540d331052e0ce648439

https://gist.github.com/ruario/fd278f3fdc947e045f3b09b3ad792588

Can't be installed as post-install or something similar?

XLN

@Hadden89 Yeah it's probably an easy fix but I'm not experienced enough to make it. I don't know how to run post-install scripts with flatpaks.

luetage

@XLN If you can’t do it, then it’s probably not that easy. You make assumptions. Fact is no one is able to bring on a working flatpak and there’s been ample time and opportunity.

XLN

@luetage The matter is that I don't know anything about flatpaks and I don't know anything about Vivaldi's first boot routines. All I did was copy someone else's work and replace "edge" with "vivaldi" basically. That was already enough to have a completely working browser.
But Vivaldi is different from the other browsers for some reason because it does some stuff after being opened for the first time, so copying isn't enough.
Fixing it would require:

Knowledge of Vivaldi (Which the Vivaldi team has)
Knowledge of Flatpak (Which the Vivaldi team has access to)

They also have the resources to just pay a contractor to do the first set-up.

Every other browser has a flatpak package, and most modern applications (even from indie devs) are published as flatpaks. I'm sure the Vivaldi team wouldn't have the slightest issue with it.

Their scripts and deps and rpms are already probably much harder to maintain

DoctorG

@XLN Add the code from the gist and try to build a working Flatpak. //edit: Ah, i missunderstoond, you duplicated only a repo and have no konwledge on packing.

I can not as having no knowledge on Flatpacking.

DoctorG

@XLN said in Flatpak support:

They also have the resources to just pay a contractor to do the first set-up.

Your assumption that Vivaldi team is willing to do this at this time. Currently the owners of Vivaldi Technologies wont spend money and time for this. That is a fact.

If you need to ask Vivaldi Team member, try at https://social.vivaldi.net/@ruario

XLN

@DoctorG I tried reaching out. I'll update you asap