[tehbeard]

The confusion is there's no info on what's different between them presented to the user.

I know vaguely that flatpak is "like docker" in terms of wrapping dependencies.

I have no clue how that translates to missing features of compatibility issues with other apps.

Even knowing which is more up to date isn't shown. Or why i should pick one over the other.

The multiple packaging types confounded my efforts to debug an issue I had with VLC, as i initially thought it was a flatpak permissions problem.. No evidence, just hearsay by what i'd seen of flatpak in general online.

[diffeomorphism]

Does it matter? People that care know and people that don't know don't need to care.

[tehbeard]

Yes it does? If it doesn't matter, why are there two or even 3 options at times for the same software with little detail as to why?

And if the packaging difference does matter (as it did for my vlc issue, one solution only worked for the deb), then an explanation for newbies should be given as to the general expectations for each package type.

Or should I just "git gud" and go digging through ppa/flathub? mailing lists to find a 2013 reply to a post?

[qbasic_forever]

I feel your frustration and honestly with 25 years of desktop Linux experience I've come to the conclusion problems with software are most common in the deb packages. For better or worse Debian maintainers patch and hack apart software to work 'the Debian way' and that almost always introduces quirks and issues for end users that are never documented well.

Like for example I've been playing with Kodi and as a deb package you can't install some (but not all) add-ons through the built in UI, you have to go find special apt packages for them and install those outside the Kodi UI. Nowhere is this documented or visible to users--Kodi's webpage doesn't concern itself with how Debian packages it so no mention there, and Debian itself is a black hole of information for end users. The exact same issue is present with RetroArch and its Debian packages version. My bottom line is I always pick a deb package as the very last option and expect pain or confusion when doing so.

[diffeomorphism]

If it did matter there would be detail as to why. It doesn't. One of them was buggy, but again does not matter which one.

> or should I just "git gud"

The opposite. Just blindly click on one. If it works you are done, if not click on a different one.

You are really, really overcomplicating this for no reason.

[ekianjo]

Nope, this is a very good point. Because for example you can't use Python/Selenium with a Flatpak version of Chromium, while you can with .deb version on Pop_OS. If you have no clue what the difference is between both of them, you would have no idea why it's not working in one case and not in the other.

[diffeomorphism]

Disagree. That is a bug that should be fixed, not ignored.

Same with selinux: Lots of "advice" was just to turn it off completely.

> You would have no idea why

Yes, file a bug to get it fixed instead of leaving other users standing in the rain.