Mark Shuttleworth's Opinion of AppImages

Using AppImages
1

Mark Shuttleworth took to Google+ to discuss the changes for Ubuntu regarding the dropping Unity announcement . . . I took the opportunity to ask him about AppImages as a format. The following is a quote from that thread.

Mark Shuttleworth:
AppImages are a pretty clean experience and I admire the work behind them. Snaps are more complex under the hood because they have deeper integration and security goals.

I then asked him about Ubuntu supporting AppImages if DEs were to support AppImages as a format.

Mark Shuttleworth:
If GNOME / KDE were to make support for AppImages a first-class thing, then we would follow in the distro, though I think we would probably want to caution users appropriately regarding security.

3 Likes
2

Thanks @MichaelTunnell, very interesting indeed!

1 Like
3

Has any DE expressed any interest in making AppImage integration?

4

is one that I am aware of.

Relevant discussion also happening at GNOME:

5

@probono It is hard to say what GNOME is thinking at any point because just a week prior to that issue post they also posted this:

I don’t think they will integrate it if they just recently considered removing the ability to do it entirely.

6

Yes, they rolled it back.

7

Well, This makes the need for Launching System even more.
The more I think about it the more I see the PortableApps model is just perfect for AppImage.
When I say model I mean the launcher and putting all of them in one library and having dedicated .home .config per AppImage (Which the launcher will take care of).