this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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Flatpaks aren't huge at all. This is a debunked myth. I can't recommend reading this article enough.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 months ago (5 children)

So you only need to use two technologies that add complexity and cost performance (filesystem compression and deduplication) to get to the point where you are still 10+% higher in disk space use? I am not sure your post supports the argument it is trying to make.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Author here. The distro comes with the filesystem compression and deduplication already set up and I don't need to manage it, so of course I'm going to use it.

Given the cost of storage I have no problems spending a barely noticeable amount of space to use flatpaks given all the problems they solve.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago

given all the problems they solve.

?

End of text?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

What's the use case where storage is at enough of a premium to matter? None of this is targeting a server where you're getting silly with optimizing storage, and even the smallest storage on most consumer facing hardware is filled by media one way or another. It straight up doesn't matter to a reasonable end user. Storage is less than dirt cheap.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes. The mindset of: I have lots of money to spend on storage, so we shouldn't care about optimisation for less fortunate users.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No, the mindset that the storage is less than pennies worth and this usage would have to explode massively to even approach negligible.

A device that is affected in any way by a GB of storage space is going to choke on 50 other things way before you get to that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I have a cheap laptop with a small SSD dual booting Windows. To me, a couple of GB does matter.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Not when the manufacturers solder the storage and mark it up 1000+%. For many devices, 1GB is still worth over $1.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Deduplications comes with flatpak for free. Both systems had filesystem compression, so this one doesn't count. 10% higher disk space is neglectible on most systems and the containerisation makes it worth it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Compression often improves performance as it means reading less data from storage. Deduplication, as flatpak uses it, is free.