Products · Product
Flatpak
Raised as a usability problem by 60 people on Hacker News over 11 years (2016–2026), in 48 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Sandbox blocks apps from connecting to other tools or drivesUnreviewed
20162026- Users must install a separate app to configure sandbox permissions, which is opaque2026-06-22
- Sandbox breaks native messaging, theming, folder access and pasting for users2025-05-30
- Sandboxed apps can't access /tmp or share files, so saving and opening attachments breaks2025-05-23
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Flatpak often fails to work and is not user friendly2026-10-19
- Permissions UX is annoying and requires extra tools like Flatseal to manage2026-10-19
- Can't bundle Flatpaks on macOS because the build tool is tied to Linux2026-08-28
- Save dialog shows confusing file listings from outside and inside the sandbox2026-08-28
- Apps break in ways users can't fix, like losing file access or unseen controllers and attachments2026-08-28
- Non-GUI apps can't register PATH aliases or request file permissions by name, making them hard to use2026-08-12
- Users must install a separate app to configure sandbox permissions, which is opaque2026-06-22
- Browser stopped working and was virtually unfixable due to cascading xdg problems2026-05-25
- Hard to find undocumented behaviour and painful to integrate with package managers2025-12-30
- Hard to find docs on runtimes and how to build software2025-12-30
- Flatpak gives a terrible user experience for installing apps2025-09-11
- Sandbox breaks native messaging, theming, folder access and pasting for users2025-05-30
- Sandboxed apps can't access /tmp or share files, so saving and opening attachments breaks2025-05-23
- Cursor shrinks to tiny size under display scaling in some apps2025-05-23
- Couldn't build a CLI program on Flatpak; permission handling causes repeated problems2025-05-23
- Flatpak apps have wrong theme, cursors, file picker and broken drag-and-drop2025-05-23
- Sandboxed apps can't reach files or fonts, and failures are hard to diagnose2025-03-23
- Restricting home folder access makes applications break and behave glitchily2025-03-23
- Flatpak apps break theming, misbehave, or fail to open, and downloads are very slow2025-03-23
- Drag and drop outside ~/Downloads fails silently or glitches; image copy-paste sometimes breaks2025-03-22
- Sandbox is so restrictive that apps can't connect to other tools or reach other drives2024-12-06
- Camera and screen capture don't work inside sandboxed apps; setup is awful2024-11-23
- Tab completion hangs the whole CLI on slow networks2024-09-11
- Compose key sequences didn't work in Flatpak apps until XCompose access was granted2024-04-15
- Files for sandboxed apps end up in a hidden ~/.var/apps path that is hard to reach2024-04-15
- Tab autocomplete hangs while making network requests, so the shell stalls2023-11-17
- Setting the HiDPI scale variable for Flatpak apps is very hard, so they look tiny2023-10-13
- Flatpak apps are hard to debug and report bugs for when they crash2023-08-21
- Steam can't write to games outside its directory without non-trivial manual permission editing2023-08-21
- Leaves about 30GB of old NVIDIA runtimes and downloads all past versions on updates2023-08-21
- Extra permission popups for file access are horrible UX, so apps request coarse access instead2023-08-21
- Changing permissions requires restarting the app, which is mildly annoying2023-07-29
- Flatpak apps are dreadfully slow to start2023-07-05
- Setting up sandbox config for complex programs takes so much effort that people struggle to use it2023-06-10
- Apps bundle different desktop runtime versions that aren't updated together, so they clash2023-06-04
- Running apps inside Flatpak is a chore due to wasted storage and quirks2023-03-31
- Flatpak is a pain to use and has a poor user experience2023-03-29
- Sandboxing causes constant problems requiring hours of Googling to fix2023-03-29
- Flatpak apps look wrong, ignore system themes and fonts, and are missing from PATH2023-03-15
- Installing Flatpak on Porteus was not a seamless experience, requiring an extra package manager2023-02-23
- Flatpak apps ignore system themes, font rendering looks wrong, and CLI tools miss PATH2023-02-12
- Save files go to a hidden deep /run directory and links from GNOME apps silently fail2022-08-16
- Settings are lost after migration, and links silently fail to open in sandboxed apps2022-08-16
- Flatpak apps show font rendering problems that remain unfixed2022-07-05
- Second Flatpak app cannot write to disk while another is open2022-05-17
- No good graphical frontend exists, so installing Flatpak apps gives a bad user experience2022-05-17
- Hard to find package versions and inspect contents via CLI and website2022-05-16
- Many apps are misconfigured or broken out of the box, hurting the user experience2022-04-21
- Asks for root password repeatedly and prints unwanted CLI output during installation2022-04-08
- Configuration options are extremely esoteric and hard to work out2022-03-13