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Signal on Linux (lemmy.today)

submitted 5 months ago by theorangeninja@lemmy.today to c/foss@beehaw.org

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How is it possible, that Signal still only provides a .deb package and no .rpm, or even better AppImage or Flatpak? There is an unofficial Flatpak but is it secure?

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[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

They can't possibly provide a package for every distro.

Signal's model, ie keep tight control over development and distribution of the client, and the absence of federation, it well suited for Apple/Google's stores, but not at all for open-source and Linux' ecosystem.

[–] theorangeninja@lemmy.today 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

AppImages run on nearly every distro. Why arw they not providing that instead of a .deb?

[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 4 points 5 months ago

Yes, AppImage can run on more distro.

Still AppImage has disadvantages over DEB: No auto-update, No/less system integration, Bigger install packages.

[–] ulkesh@beehaw.org 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You are right. They can’t for every distro.

But fedora/rhel, Ubuntu/debian, and arch-based distros are the most commonly used. So they can provide official packages for those, and/or as the OP said, provide an official flatpak.

And to be fair, it’s a nice-to-have to have a better sense of trust, but given the unofficial ones are open source, it’s quite likely any maliciousness would be rooted out very quickly.

[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 2 points 5 months ago

Or, if you are running one of those distros you could just take the .deb and repackage it for whatever distro you're running. Expecting a project to package for every distro, and then be required to support them for every release is a lot of work. And unfortunately some people have no issues expecting from others, but baulk at the idea of doing it themselves.