I am currently using Linux Mint (after a long stint of using MX Linux) after learning it handles Nvidia graphics cards flawlessly, which I am grateful for. Whatever grief I have given Ubuntu in the past, I take it back because when they make something work, it is solid.
Anyways, like most distros these days, Flatpaks show up alongside native packages in the package manager / app store. I used to have a bias towards getting the natively packed version, but these days, I am choosing Flatpaks, precisely because I know they will be the latest version.
This includes Blender, Cura, Prusaslicer, and just now QBittorrent. I know this is probably dumb, but I choose the version based on which has the nicer icon.
Flatpaks are my second choice when there isn’t a recent enough version in the repos. They’re fine but take 1. too much storage space, and 2. are usually slower
I have never considered speed. For example, it may be foolish to use flatpaks for Blender or Godot engine? Or perhaps is it the startup speed that is slow?
yes i’m talking about the startup speed. It’s not as bad as snap, but noticeably slower with some apps (it can be annoying for a web browser for example)
I am hoping that is something that goes away in time, but who knows the future. If it sucks now, it may not be worth it now.