So I know that the Applications section are Flatpaks, and the system software section has to do with updating system packages (RPMs in my case), but what is the Application support section?
Those are the non-application flatpaks, usually libraries and the like that can be shared by multiple apps.
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Interesting, so it’s like a flatpak that acts as a dependency for other applications.
I thought the whole point of Flatpak was that applications are self contained?
Yes, they are, with major components being sharable; else the bloat would be outrageous.
They are self-contained in that they do not rely on one’s system libraries and versions. Every KDE app would need to include Breeze, for example.
But to complicate things, there is also deduplication that reduces redundant files across different flatpaks as well. I think. It is a bit over my head.
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Ah, here’s the misconception surely.
Flatpak is self contained, and doesn’t rely on your main system libraries - but individual apps are not single isolated bubbles (which is what ‘appimages’ were touted to be) but simply runs in the flatpak environment.
So Flatpak provides the platform for flatpak apps to run - really the word ‘self-contained’ is misleading, because it’s more like ‘sandboxed and bundled with it’s own dependencies, but sharing the common Flatpak OS layer with other Flatpak apps’.
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Funky. Sure I guess having 98 copies of the Breeze theme and stuff would be redundant. Linux is weird man.