This article introduces projects available in Flathub with installation instructions.
Flathub is the place to get and distribute apps for all of Linux. It is powered by Flatpak, allowing Flathub apps to run on almost any Linux distribution.
Please read “Getting started with Flatpak“. In order to enable flathub as your flatpak provider, use the instructions on the flatpak site.
Live Captions
Live Captions is an application that provides realtime automatic subtitles for the Linux desktop. Only English is available, at at this time. Other languages may produce gibberish or a bad phonetic translation.
Features:
- Simple interface
- Caption desktop/mic audio locally, powered by deep learning
- No API keys, no proprietary services/libraries, no telemetry, no spying, no data collection, does not use network permission
- Adjust font, font size, and toggle uppercase/lowercase
- Less confident text is faded (darkened). This feature is configurable.
I honestly didn’t know about this application until it was recently recommended, and I was quite amazed. It’s really helpful for people with hearing problems. As is common with this kind of software, models need training and the project, in general, needs feedback.
Live Caption requires good hardware to function correctly, but it doesn’t need a dedicated GPU.
This project is marked as safe because it needs no special permission:
You can install “Live Caption” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:
flatpak install flathub net.sapples.LiveCaptions
Pencil2D
Pencil2D is a 2D animation program that lets you easily create hand-drawn graphics using both bitmap and vector graphics. Its highlight features are:
- Minimal Design
- Raster & Vector
- Cross-Platform
- Open Source & Free
Be aware that this project is marked as “potentially unsafe” because it can access your filesystem:
You can install “Pencil2D” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:
flatpak install flathub org.pencil2d.Pencil2D
Pencil2D is also available as rpm on fedora’s repositories
Frog
Frog is an application that allows you to extract text from images, websites, videos, and QR codes by taking a picture of the source.
Some of its features are:
- Extract QR Code and barcode: Capture, extract and convert any QR codes or barcodes in a second.
- Drag-n-drop: You do not need to make a screenshot of the image. Drag and drop it straight into the Frog window to extract the text.
- Tons of supported languages: Frog supports a lot of languages, even those which it didn’t in the past.
- Privacy: Frog use Portals to respect your privacy
Be aware that this project is marked as “potentially unsafe” because it can access your home folder:
You can install “Frog” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:
flatpak install flathub com.github.tenderowl.frog
PDF Arranger
PDF Arranger is a small application, which helps the user merge or split pdf documents and rotate, crop and rearrange their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface.
There is not much more to say than it’s a great application, very intuitive and easy to use.
Be aware that this project is marked as “potentially unsafe” because it can access your filesystem:
You can install “PDF Arranger” by clicking the install button on the web site or manually using this command:
flatpak install flathub com.github.jeromerobert.pdfarranger
PDF Arranger is also available as rpm on fedora’s repositories
GroovyMan
This article does not make sense to me.
Pencial and the PDF Arranger can be retrieved in the same version as from flatpack. What a bummer !!!
Why should i use a ressource consuming flatpack version of a application, that is less suported that the rpm variant ?
Flatpak makes no sense to me!
drew
Ditto what is fedora doing here, where does copr fit in?
afawsaggy
immutable desktop
Pheeef
Once you have all the dependencies installed, individual Flatpaks are not that big anymore. Obviously you can install most of the Stuff from Source or through a RPM but not everyone is an Administrator on their own System or maybe they use an immutable Version of Fedora.
Flatpak is just another way to package and distribute programs, it helps developers to ensure that the decencies and underlying system components are the same for every system, thus making it easier to troubleshoot potential problems.
I seriously don’t understand the hate against Flatpak.
Darvond
It doesn’t solve the actual issues that people have with package management and exacerbates the problems they do. Why does this entire runtime need to exist why does Rust have 59 different packages?
Eli
It literally does. You can install the latest version of Firefox on Debian 11 or a very old app on Fedora or Arch and not go into dependency hell, you can update your system knowing it won’t explode because the update script had some unintentionally or intentionally malicious code (Bumblebee incident, iykyk).
david frantz
Honestly I don’t get Flatpak either. It is an incredible waste of resources.
Okki
I can’t wait for Fedora to abandon RPM packaging for all desktop applications. What a waste of human resources to redo the same packaging work for each distribution…
/dev/pie
Flatpak is great until an app doesnt work. So being able to use rpm is a life saver.
Ryan
I’m unsure if they will abandon RPM. I’ve seen more and more people using stuff like Distrobox lately. Which can convert any distro repository format to a format of the user’s choice. I think we’ll probably see more of this in the future competing with Flatpak.
GroovyMan
Not sure if you ever developed software in a professional context. Once you set up a build environment, the packaing can be done in a automated build run. Anyway you have to test the application, and analyse problems. But this is the same with flatpack.
Gerhard Stein
One about Games and mentioning Commander Genius would be nice 😀
We have a flatpak on flathub
Darvond
Live Caption, being an accessibility boon, feels as though one of those things the Fedora Accessibility SiG (should it exist) would prioritize.
I once again, agree with what GroovyMan says; that Flatpaks often feel like an excuse for package maintainers and the Fedora SiGs to get complacent.
Danniello
These unsafe warnings in this article are pure nonsense.
“Pencil2D potentially unsafe because it can access your filesystem”. Pencil2D it is bitmap/vector graphics editor. I can’t imagine a graphical editor without ability to open/save files! The same situation is with Frog and PDF Arranger – main functionality of these applications requires to have read/write file access…
There are already mentioned on flathub.org because it is generic information that should be present on every AppStore. But why copy/paste it into article, especially that these requirements are obvious?!
Okki
It would have been much more interesting to add screenshots of the applications themselves…
Darvond
Ah, but how do you add a screenshot of a terminal application that has no reason to be a flatpak in the first place?
(Or so many would insist to think on the former half.)
Danniello
@Darvond
All mentioned it the article applications have GUI, so screenshot is definitely possible:) As far I know on flathub.org there are no published terminal only applications, probably because flatpak is not very “user friendly” in terminal (without tricks with aliases, etc.)
PS1. My previous comment sounds a bit harsher than I intended… Sorry for that. Add warnings about access rights was not necessary, but it is not a crime:)
PS2. Flatpak and flathub.org as general are great! Flatpak means that you could install application on EVERY real Linux distribution. And thanks Valve – it is the first Linux AppStore accessible for mainstream “out of the box” on SteamDeck consoles.
Michael
There’s literally a screenshot of all four applications at the top of the article…
Elliott S
I’d definitely agree that a screenshot of a Flatpak warning that is already specified in the text is far less useful than a screenshot of the actual application being recommended.
And the banner image is pretty low resolution, PDF Arranger is 75% covered by the others, and the Live Captions one just looks like a picture of text (I don’t know if that’s what it’s supposed to look like when it’s mixed in with all the others), so it doesn’t really showcase the applications that well.
Gregory Bartholomew
Folks (especially those who’ve commented several times): I think you’ve made your point. Let’s try to hold our peace for a while and avoid being too negative OK. 🙂
Michael
That’s a kind way to put it, Gregory. How this completely innocuous article became the place for people to air their flatpak grievances is beyond me. 🙄
newton
venho desejar um feliz 2024 muita saúde e grandes conquistas para todos sistemas Linux ou Windows ,pós a tecnologias andam de braços abertos e juntos ,amo o sistema Linux pós e livre e uma luta constante para atualizar e crescer ,e nosso grande sistema Fedora ,venham ajudar dar opinião .feliz 2024 ,obrigado
Samuel
Some of the apps looks really cool to try out, except the ‘unsafe once’. Might try and create one for personal development and make it open for others to contribute, that will allow it to be much better, cool, and simple. Also making it safe to be used.
Elliott S
The “Live Captions” application is missing a link to Flathub like the other apps do.
Richard England
Thank you for pointing out the missing link. It has been updated.
gro
Nice article, but I agree with others regarding the safe/unsafe labeling: the whole point about application being “potentially unsafe because can access the filesystem” is totally distracting. How do you do any productivity application involving reading/writing files that does not require that? I think these labels in GNOME store are somewhat misleading and dilute term “unsafe” to the point when it does not carry any meaning. It is of course not a point to the article author but to those who came up with this labeling.
wheel spinner
Wow, Eduard, thanks for sharing! I had no idea about Live Captions, and it sounds like a game-changer. Can’t wait to try it out!
David Vales
Flatpak has a lot of good apps, i wanna publish some of them to this articles,