In view of the recent Flatpak security issue of breaking out into the system I decided to search for instances of A.I. use in any Flatpak.
I found an interesting article on FOSS LINUX. The article is very good and gives an in-depth look at Flatpak and comparisons with Snap and AppImage packaging. I will give the link at the end, but here are some highlights from it, starting with A.I. Policy:
" Why It Matters: Flathub’s AI policy is not just about code quality. It is about trust. When a user installs an app from Flathub, they are trusting that a real person reviewed the permissions, tested the sandboxing, and will respond to security issues. AI-generated apps skip all of that accountability."
Followed by [emphasis by me in Bold]
"There are exceptions for mature, well-maintained projects."
Interesting facts on validation [I have used Bold emphasis on an interesting point on the numbers]:
"## Evaluating App Quality on Flathub
Not every app on Flathub is created equal. With 3,542 apps, you need to know how to separate quality from noise. I look at three things before installing anything.
First, check for the Verified badge. Verified apps are published by the original developers and have been confirmed by the Flathub team. There are currently 2,092 verified apps out of 3,542 total. If an app is verified, you know the developer is actively maintaining it."
There is also mention of third party repositories, but if there are such third party repositories for unique Flatpak apps, how can verification be maintained and how do we know if there has been any bad actor involvement like occurred with xz?
Whilst a couple of CVE's have been rectified, one historic one in particular made me glad I never touched Flatpak:
"CVE-2026-34079 prevented arbitrary file deletion."
Whilst some small praise was given to Canonical's Snap it was balanced by stating it's drawbacks [which I have emphasised in Bold] and let's not forget Canonical's implementation of A.I. in Ubuntu 26.04:
" Snap wins on Ubuntu integration. If you are running Ubuntu, Snaps work seamlessly out of the box. The snapd daemon handles updates automatically, and the Ubuntu Software Center surfaces Snaps prominently. The downside is the canonical-controlled store and the daemon overhead that runs in the background."
Read the full article here including useful tips if you are still keen to use it, but not in my daily OS
.
https://www.fosslinux.com/157752/flathub-flatpak-complete-guide.htm
[Side note: On the comment on AppImage:
" AppImage wins on simplicity. Download one file, make it executable, run it. No daemon, no repository, no sandbox. The trade-off is no automatic updates and no centralized discovery. AppImages are great for portable tools but do not scale well for a desktop app ecosystem."
There are instances in an Education setting where AppImages are essential in respect of portableapps from portableapps.com. I recently gave advice to someone whose student's needed NVDA, and similarly Inkscape in situations where schools won't agree to install anything outside the MS ecosystem. I was fortunate to work in an IR of a school where the IT Department agreed for us to use Inkscape which saved the service wasting £200 per machine licence on Accessible Drawing Software that was not needed. Just pity the students with a visual impairment who attend schools running Google Classrooms who don't have access to MS Office, as Google Docs is nowhere near as accessible visually when it comes to applying Styles!]