On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 2:41 PM Michael Catanzaro <mcatanzaro(a)gnome.org> wrote:
On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 11:15 am, Chris Murphy
<lists(a)colorremedies.com> wrote:
> In the single-user system scenario it doesn't matter that flatpaks are
> installed to $HOME by default, and it's probably preferred given the
> default Workstation partition layout; but I think it's confusing in
> the multi-user case, as a default, because those installed apps won't
> show up for any other user. Not only is there no way to set a default
> location, in the GUI I can't specify the system location on a case by
> case basis.
I've become convinced that the GUI should expose system vs. user
installation for users to choose between.
It could be a checkbox under the Install button for the application in
GNOME Software: for this user only
Or to that effect.
I was thinking *user* would be a better default, but seems not everyone
agrees. :)
Back in the era when flatpak CLI defaulted to --system, I thought the
same way and advocated for changing it, because ~/ has way more space
available, and privileges aren't required to do the installation. But
GNOME Software appears to have not followed that.
Another possibility is that an admin user (a user in the wheel group?)
by default has flatpaks --system installed; whereas a standard user
not in the wheel group, by default has flatpaks --user installed.
Maybe that's already the case, and requires privileges for the admin
user to install, but not the standard user.
If there were a per app install checkbox, it would be checked by
default for the standard user and grayed out. They have no other
choice but to ask their sysadmin for a system wide installation of the
application.
--
Chris Murphy