Treating Ubunlog from a blog about Ubuntu, at first, it should not be surprising if the type of next-generation package that is most talked about is Snap. Canonical launched this new type of package in 2015 and implemented it in Ubuntu with the arrival of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. A little less time ago, although they came out months before, we have also started talking about the packages Flatpak and today we are going to talk about the AppImage, of the good and the bad of this third type of new generation packages.
The first thing we have to say is that AppImage is a type of package that has little new. They were born as «klik» in 2004, so they are as old as Ubuntu itself. That type of package was the root of what we know today, although before receiving the current name it also came to be called portableLinuxApps. It was not until 2013 that they began to be called AppImage and until 2018 that their first stable version was released.
The good thing about the AppImage
Everything you need comes in one package
Like Snap and Flatpak, AppImage includes everything necessary for an app to work. This avoids having to install software and dependencies that "dirty" the operating system. As an example, if an app requires Java, its AppImage will include it, which will prevent compatibility issues from using an unsupported version.
They are "Portable"
The name portableLinuxApps had a meaning, and that is that it can be treated like those Windows EXE's that are labeled "Portables": we can take the app on a USB and use it on any other computer that is running Linux. To launch them, just right click on them, go to the permission options, mark them as executable and launch them by double clicking on them.
They do not require installation
As they are not installed, uninstalling them is as simple as moving the AppImage to the trash. It is likely that the first time we run them, we create a file so that the application appears in the start menu of our Linux distribution, so to eliminate them completely we would have to delete that file that will have been created in HOME / .local / share / applications. You can also create a configuration folder in our personal folder that we must also delete if we want to "uninstall" the AppImage completely.
The bad thing about AppImage
We will have to manage your location ourselves
As these are "Portable" applications, we will be the ones who we will have to choose where to place them. It may be a good idea to create a folder in HOME or in Documents, for example, to put them all.
Small problems with shortcuts
As we have explained previously, some AppImage create a shortcut for us in HOME / .local / share / applications. There are two problems with this: first, if the shortcut is not created for us, we will not be able to launch the application like any other unless we create our own .desktop file, for which we will also have to find and add our own image to its icon. The second is exactly the opposite of the first: if you create a shortcut for us, when we delete the AppImage it will remain in the start menu, so we will have to go to the aforementioned path and delete them by hand.
How are AppImage updates?
Snap packages are updated from the software center or with the command "sudo snap refresh APP", without the quotes and changing "APP" by the app. Flatpaks are updated from the software center or with the "flatpak update" command. But what about the AppImage? Its not that easy. There is a tool called AppImageUpdate which is designed for that, but it is not the most intuitive thing in the world. Actually, it will depend a bit on whether the developer has introduced notices or if it only offers information from the "About" menu of a specific app. This is the case in many Windows and macOS applications, where they notify us that there is a newer version and offer us to download it.
As you can see, the advantages of packages that include everything in themselves are many, the disadvantages not being tragedies. Knowing a little more about the AppImage: Which one do you prefer: Snap, Flatpak or AppImage?
Regarding what you comment "It may be a good idea to create a folder in HOME or in Documents, ..." I wonder, being a Linux user as you are, has it not occurred to you to recommend storing the AppImage files in the "bin" folder user (~ / bin)? It is drawer.
Well, the bin folder inside the user is not that it is the most common thing in the world. The "user bin" is the "applications" folder under "Documents".
And I come here to ask something about the appimage. They are portable, okay. But what about all the configuration you generate? where is it stored? What happens to this configuration if you update? I personally don't like appimage.
Regards,
It would be important to remember that AppImage offers 0 security measures and that we give full access to our system to the applications that we download, making the systems easily attacked by viruses and others.
You have to be very careful about how you use AppImage, just as it was a bad idea to download software from the Internet in Windows XP.
For me personally first what is in the repositories, then snap and finally flatkpak.
The usual: download from well-known sources