OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

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Veritate
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Joined: 25 Oct 2017, 09:49

OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by Veritate »

…because of poor souls like me that use Fedora 27 or the like and do not have access to the latest and greatest version of OpenMW (through the Launchpad PPA).

On that note, I would like to say hello to the OpenMW community. You guys are doing a great job. Because of you I can dwell again in one my favorite video games as a teen, which to me is pure pleasure. I would also like to excuse my sensational title. I do not want to make any unwarranted demands here. It is just food for thought.

Wouldn't a flatpak of OpenMW be a good idea? Everyone would be able to play the latest (or a previous) version on virtually any modern Linux distro, and without the hassle of possibly missing or broken dependencies. Look at my case: OpenMW 0.41 is the most recent version on RPM Fusion, and I have no idea when it will be updated. It's probably the missing Bullet library. So I have tried to compile the latest Bullet in order to eventually compile OpenMW, but I failed miserably at Bullet (or at least I could not tell my system to recognize the latest compilation). Providing a flatpak would be a little more user-friendly than all of this!

Of course, because I know it will come up: I fear I do not have the time or the proper technical background to maintain an (admittedly huge) flatpak repository. Someone else that could stand in would be much needed. – However, wouldn't the provision of a flatpak make any other method on Linux obsolete, thereby reducing redundant fragmentation?

And once again, hello to all of you. I'm looking forward to the great future of OpenMW!
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AnyOldName3
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by AnyOldName3 »

In the downloads section, we actually do have generic Linux builds that should run on any distro
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psi29a
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by psi29a »

If someone wants flatpak, they are more than welcome to step up and be a committed developer in creating flatpak releases.
Veritate
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by Veritate »

AnyOldName3 wrote: 25 Oct 2017, 11:37 In the downloads section, we actually do have generic Linux builds that should run on any distro
Wow, I never knew that! Thanks. I always thought there are only binaries for Windows and Mac OS, but on Linux you would need to compile yourself. So apparently I was mistaken.

Nevertheless, I still argue that flatpak'ing OpenMW would be a great way to unify the OpenMW downloads page and make the project future-proof.
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psi29a
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by psi29a »

I don't understand, how does flatpakking make things future-proof? It's just yet another container/package.

Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to maintain it, sure, go ahead.
Dyskos
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by Dyskos »

Although I used to hate it, and am not quite a fan of anything Ubuntu has made, I've actually heard from respectable package maintainers and distro developers that Snap packaging has become quite good in recent months. At least, good enough for the developer of Solus to put Flatpak support on hold and focus on Snaps. I've heard the packaging tools are now great, and that it has good sandboxing support, too.

Might it be worth looking into, if we were to consider a "universal" packaging platform to use. Solus no has full Snap support, and I believe Fedora does, too, does it not?
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psi29a
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by psi29a »

Yet another container... ;)
Veritate
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by Veritate »

psi29a wrote: 26 Oct 2017, 20:33 I don't understand, how does flatpakking make things future-proof? It's just yet another container/package.
It is just that I trust the $$$ and vision of Red Hat more than what Canonical offers.

I think it's quite possible that Flatpak is the future of graphical apps on Linux, so why not think about it.

Of course, Snaps would be fine as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if Canonical just abandonded them in a few years time…
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psi29a
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by psi29a »

Like Mir and Unity? :)

I love standards! Everyone has one! :D

If someone wants to create a snap or flapak, please do so.
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Sslaxx
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Re: OpenMW desperately needs a Flatpak

Post by Sslaxx »

So what happened to AppImage, then?
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