And then the calculator app, which is native, is wrapped up in some sort of isolating container that makes it take as long to start up as an electron app.
I sometimes, by accident, launched LibreOffice Calc. It launched faster than the calculator app :). I believe they changed that. The calculator app isn't shipped in a snap package anymore.
OpenBSD went that route, and when they introduced pledge(2) and later unveil(2), they've applied these to every single program in the base system (over the course of a single release cycle!).
There's absolutely zero reason for bc(1) to accept network connections, or for grep(1) to execve(2) into arbitrary programs. But both of these programs need to process and interpret arbitrary input, which makes them potential targets for exploits.
You don't technically "need" security, just like you don't "need" seatbelts... until you actually are in an accident.
Look, you gave the openbsd example, and that's the right way to do it.
Flatpack's are for packaged software-deployment, those are two different things.
Why the need for a sandbox if you could do it much cleaner with things like pledge? But in typical linux fashion, just put another layer on top the pile of garbage so it stop's to stink for a while.
>Well - why would I not want that?
Then please start with the most obvious application sometimes called kernel.
Instead of rigorously integrate something like SElinux they throw layers over layers of half-backed "sandboxes", up to the point to separate applications with Xen (Qube-os), then you find out about Meltdown, and we are back in 1990.
Because there is a push for software developers to be able to package directly for end users. Without devolving into the usual flame war of whether it's a good idea or not, once you install any piece of software you incur some security risks. It's not like distro maintainers are a 100% guarantee there won't be a backdoor in the binary, and compiling software from source doesn't free you from risks either, unless you code-review everything you install.
My point is, containerisation on Linux isn't necessarily slow—in fact it's unnoticeable if implemented correctly—and I prefer to default to having a decent amount of security by containerising as much software as I can, whatever the origin. Including, and especially software like the calculator, since it should not be able to do anything more than show a GUI and add numbers together.
That's not what i asked, why do you trust a no name dev more then the distro your kernel is coming from? And do you really think flatpack prevents you from running packed malware?
In my particular case: I don't want to wait months or even years for updates to arrive in my distribution. With the Flatpak version I get updates usually on the same day they are published, since the Flatpak is also maintained by the calculator developers, and I also get a calculator which can't access my ssh keys or the internet, due to sandboxing. And in case of any breakage, I can also quickly roll back to the last version.
Without flatpak I'd need to use some rolling release distribution, where not just a few applications get updated quickly, but also the rest of the system, which I'm not interested in.