The deb file probably contains new versions of electron (or at least versions of electron that change the actual v8/chrome version) and the regular updates during launch are loading JavaScript. Just a guess.
Flatpak and its ilk are a scourge that should be avoided. I don’t want to have to install another package management system when apt is right there. Moreover, I like apt precisely because it has in-depth knowledge about everything in the system. If I install something from source, it’s a careful decision, and I know the tradeoffs. With things like Flatpak, that line is blurred.
While I think you might be missing out, I totally respect your preferences. For the longest time it was also my preference.
In my case, ultimately, paranoia has won. :)
How much do you really trust discord? Or games on steam, or slack, or zoom client?
Flatpak does provide you, out of the box, with a sandbox for whole discord app. Sandbox is built on standard linux stuff like bubblewrap / seccomp / namespaces. This should prevent discord from, for example, accessing anything other than ~/Downloads (rw), ~/Pictures (ro) and so on. Or seeing what other processess are running on my pc. Or snooping in my ~/.ssh.
Some stuff might not work out of box and will require reading app's README or wiki. I imagine stuff like "john is listening to song - artist" would require additional permission or configuration. File sharing could be complicated if, for example, discord could not access my screenshots directory. Webcam, voice and screen sharing work out of box but are protected by "portals" provided by (in my case) KDE.
Discord, for example, does not pollute my /usr or /home. It stays somewhere in /var/lib/flatpak/ and keeps my user files in ~/.var/app/$APPNAME. Steam, Slack, all other "big proprietary apps" also keep their stuff in ~/.var/app/$APPNAME. It's not really a choice for them; flatpak just mounts proper directories in proper places and it works really well.
You can use `nsenter --target $PID --pid --net --mount --ipc` and look around to what kind of access flatpak apps have to your system.
Sorry about preaching, I just like that bit of additional separation from stuff I don't really want to trust or care about.
Take a few minutes to learn how it works then. Flatpak doesn't replace apt, which is a system package manager. Flatpak is for standalone apps, like Discord.
? Apt doesn’t require you to install from source? It’s not even its default behavior?
Flatpak provides basic level of sandboxing that ensures non-malicious stupid stuff like how steam had a bug to delete the entire user directory doesn’t actually impact you.
Beyond that, discord probably won’t solve issues with the N package managers if something happens. They’re a lot more likely to solve a Flatpak problem though.
I meant that if I deviate from apt (e.g. I want a newer version of something than what the repo has), I carefully consider what ramifications compiling and installing something from source may have on the stability of the system, which likely shares many of the same libraries.
Much of this is just grumbling. I love Debian, hate Ubuntu, and think things shouldn’t change a lot.
This is why I tend to use flatpack browsers. Access to download to Downloads folder is really all they need on my system (for my needs, needs may vary by users)
