Hi
I am a bit confused with the different gnome extension managers that can be used to download, browse and manage gnome extensions. I am using Zorin Pro.
Is there one native installed in Zorin Pro already? If yes, how to access it?
There seems to be an "official" gnome extension manager that I saw on different forums, and then also two Extension managers by Matt Jakeman - one that I can install under Zorin OS and one that has to be installed on Flatpak - what are the differences among these and which one should I install?
A related issue is that I seems to have problem when trying to install the Extension manager via Flatpak - do i need to install something else to install extensions/apps via Flatpak?
Gnome Shell Extensions
That has as Symbol a green Puzzle Piece. That comes from Gnome itself to manage Extensions but You can't install Extensions trough it.
Extension Manager
That has the blue Puzzle Piece as Symbol and is from Matt Jakeman. With that Tool You can manage the Extensions and install them on the ''Browse'' Tab.
Both of these Programs are available as Flatpak and APT Package. With the Extension Manager the Thing is: On the Github Page is the Flatpak recommended. That comes directly from the Developer. The APT Version in the Repo doesn't come from this Developer directly. It seems that there is an independent Maintainer who pack that.
To Point 3: what Problem do you have with the Installation exactly?
Thanks!
Point 3 - this one has to be installed via flatpak - i clicked installed, and it took forever to go on 1%, 2%... - given it is such a small app it shouldn't be taking so long - then I clicked cancel, but then it still creep up to 6% - very strange. There is another version of the Extension Manager from Jakeman - this seems to be the older one and I can install via Zorin OS - i clicked installed and it got installed instantly.
Yes, that is the APT Package what I've explained above.
Well, the Program itself isn't big, yes. But it can be that installing Dependencies can take a while. Because Flatpak's run in Container's, there bring there own Dependencies withit. And that will be downloaded, too.
You could try it to install over the Terminal. There you should see what Stuff is downloading with it. To do that type in the Terminal:
Yes, Flatpak is a bit frustrating like this. If your device has limited space, do not install Snap, Flapak, or AppImage software unless they are the only option for a specific program you really need. They rely on, in different ways, pre-bundling all the specifically necessary dependencies for the program in order to make them cross-platform compatible. The problem is that Gnome Software, and other equivalents like KDE's Discover, don't expose any information to users about those dependencies and only show you the download size of the app itself.
To be fair, once you've installed a few Flatpaks or Snaps, you likely have the most common dependencies / runtimes installed for them so the next app you install will download much quicker, but the fist few you install can take much longer than you'd expect because of this. Updates are also impacted, as those dependencies and runtimes will need updating as well - oftentimes, you'll be due updates only to dependencies and runtimes, even when your installed apps don't have any available updates!
Until recently, Flatpak did not handle uninstalling and cleaning up old runtimes very well at all, and I am ideologically opposed to Snap due to their scummy behaviour and past tactics to try and force adoption which gnome and Ubuntu support, so I tend to avoid both when I can and install native packages (e.g. .deb and apt on Debian / Ubuntu / Zoring, .rpm and dnf on Fedora) as much as possible even if storage space is not really a concern on my computer.