Sovereign Tech Agency invests €500k in Flatpak
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Germany's Sovereign Tech Fund invests €508,640 to improve Flatpak's sandboxing and security.
The Sovereign Tech Agency has granted €508,640 for a two-year initiative, co-organized by Modal and Para-Real Ltd., to advance Flatpak's sandboxing. The project aims to close gaps like audio output separation from microphone access, and add new portals for networking, VPN, writing assistance, and password auto-fill. It also includes infrastructure work on entitlements, intents, and portal maintenance. The technical team includes Philip Withnall, Julian Sparber, and others, with the project running through end of 2027.
What commenters are saying
Commenters debated Flatpak's sandbox model. Some prefer a stricter "app is a directory" approach with permission prompts for file access, while others note compatibility constraints with legacy apps. Comments highlighted that macOS sandboxing succeeded via decades of incremental, well-planned design. Several users shared workarounds: using Podman or DistroBox for containerized desktop apps, and using Flatseal to manually restrict permissions. The thread leans toward desiring stronger defaults but acknowledges technical debt and user tolerance limits.