The Ultimate Guide to Universal Linux Apps: Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage

Very often I find myself remembering the "bad old days" of Linux. If you wanted to install a simple app, you had to add a random PPA repository, run apt-get update , and pray that it didn't break your system dependencies. If you used Arch Linux instead of Ubuntu, you had to hope someone made an AUR package for it. Today, the Linux desktop is much better. We have "Universal Package Managers". They bundle the app and all its dependencies into one single package that runs on any Linux distribution. But now we have a new problem. There are three competing standards: Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage . I have used all of them extensively over the years. Here is my honest breakdown of how they work, the pros and cons of each, and which one you should actually use. 1. AppImage (The Portable USB Drive) AppImage is the simplest of the three. It is the closest thing Linux has to a Windows .exe file or a macOS .dmg file. How it works: You don't actually "install" an AppImage. You just go to a website,