Usability problem: Plz default to the repo version of the app

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
28/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
python
Domain
desktop

Research direction

Start by locating the code that selects the default application source in Mintinstall and inspect how repository and Flatpak entries are presented. Confirm the desired behavior against the issue: prefer the repository version when available, retain Flatpak as an option, and use Flatpak only when no repository version exists.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Recently my husband installed Darktable and Gimp via Snap/Flatpak (ubuntu and mint) and printing was not available on these apps, while the repo versions of these apps were functioning normally. The problem is the new users coming from Windows and going to flatpaks by default though.

In the meantime, this user https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdwryMje2MA had similar problems with obs studio, since no plugins were able to get installed on the flatpak version. Even the Geany editor didn't work at all with the Vala compiler that existed outside of it, making it useless!

Particularly for complex apps, flatpaks have too many problems, since not all apps implement the XDG Desktop Portal API. And in the flathub descriptions, the creators of these flatpaks don't even bother to list the features that don't work. These are trap-apps for many new users.

That's why I'd like to ask for your Mintinstall app to DEFAULT to the repo version of an app. The flatpak will still be available as a drop-down option, or it would be the default option if there's no such app in the repo. But please, don't default to the flatpak version. Simple apps work well as flatpaks, but complex ones don't.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
181
Forks
116
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