[Article Proposal] atomic desktop: develop using flatpak IDEs

[job79]

Article Summary
The article will describe how to setup a development environment using flatpak IDEs.

Article Description
Setting up a development environment using a flatpak IDE is different then what most users are used to. Because there is not much information about this online I think it would be a great topic for a fedora magazine article. While the article would be focused on atomic desktop using a flatpak IDE also has advantages for non atomic desktop users.

When using a flatpak IDE there are a couple of options to setup a development environment. The article will describe three options for both visual studio code and intellij/pycharm. These are chosen based on my preference, would gladly receive input on this.

• Install flatpak extensions to get Software Development Kits (node / go) inside the flatpak.
• When not available use mise as an alternative to install SDKs.
• Or use toolbox / podman integration. How this works is different for each IDE.

It should be an extended and better written version of the post I made in this topic:

Python and Web Programming set up

Hi! I am also a silverblue user doing development, let me try to explain the different options you have and what I am personally using. Development on silverblue is different than what most linux users are doing (installing things on the host) so it can be somewhat difficult to find information. It works great once everything is setup though. flatpak So from your post I get that you tried installed your IDE (vscode) using flatpak. After installing the IDE you need to install python and node in…

A nice follow-up article might be setting up a dev environment with only toolbox, but this is not something I am very knowledgeable about.

Writing it
If accepted, I’m interested in taking a shot at writing this. I am non-native and dyslexic perfectionist, so might need a lot of time and a bit of help.

Some questions I have:

• Would it be possible to add short videos to the post that illustrate the actions described in the text? This would be helpful when describing what to do in the IDE, a video is much better at demonstrating that than just a piece of text.
• If I where to write this post, is it possible to receive feedback before the post is completed? In case I am doing something wrong I want to adjust early.
• Is it fine to use visual studio code (the proprietary one) and intellij ultimate as example? The opensource / free versions don’t support toolbox integration, which is 1 of the best options. Might not be totally in the opensource spirit but these are the most popular IDEs on linux.

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

@job79

• Would it be possible to add short videos to the post that illustrate the actions described in the text? This would be helpful when describing what to do in the IDE, a video is much better at demonstrating that than just a piece of text.

Authors have uploaded video recordings to their YouTube channels and linked to them in their article in the past. We usually don’t like to rely on third-party sites for content (it can lead to incomplete articles if the links become invalid at some future time), but because videos tend to be quite large we make an exception for them.

@job79

• If I where to write this post, is it possible to receive feedback before the post is completed? In case I am doing something wrong I want to adjust early.

You can set your article’s status to “public preview” which will give you a special link that non-anonymous users will be able to follow and see a read-only preview of your article before it is published. The only trick to that is that they need to sign in on Fedora Magazine’s WordPress site before the link will work. You are welcome to share such a link here in this thread and then others are welcome to provide further feedback about the article here as well.

@job79

• Is it fine to use visual studio code (the proprietary one) and intellij ultimate as example? The opensource / free versions don’t support toolbox integration, which is 1 of the best options. Might not be totally in the opensource spirit but these are the most popular IDEs on linux.

This might be a deal breaker. Promoting FOSS is the core purpose of Fedora Magazine. Would it be possible to demonstrate similar concepts with a free/libre and open-source IDE?

[job79]

@glb

This might be a deal breaker. Promoting FOSS is the core purpose of Fedora Magazine. Would it be possible to demonstrate similar concepts with a free/libre and open-source IDE?

It would be possible to write an article without the podman/toolbox integration, then the free/libre versions would suffice. But I would strongly prefer to include this option because it is not possible to use flatpak SDKs / mise for every programming language. C and C++ would be very difficult for as far as I know.

So if this really is a deal-breaker we could drop it, but if possible preferably not. If we drop it it
is probably a good idea to at least hint at the existence of this option so a reader gets the full picture. I do get why this would be difficult though, I would personally also prefer to promote/use a full opensource IDE.

@glb

Authors have uploaded video recordings to their YouTube channels and linked to them in their article in the past. We usually don’t like to rely on third-party sites for content (it can lead to incomplete articles if the links become invalid at some future time), but because videos tend to be quite large we make an exception for them.

I would have to create a youtube account, but great that it is an option.

@glb

You can set your article’s status to “public preview” which will give you a special link that non-anonymous users will be able to follow and see a read-only preview of your article before it is published. The only trick to that is that they need to sign in on Fedora Magazine’s WordPress site before the link will work. You are welcome to share such a link here in this thread and then others are welcome to provide further feedback about the article here as well.

Awesome!

[job79]

If it wouldn’t be a good fit for fedora magazine that is also fine. Then I will probably still write an article but then in a git repo. Only disadvantage would be that it would be way less visible.

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

@job79

It would be possible to write an article without the podman/toolbox integration, then the free/libre versions would suffice. But I would strongly prefer to include this option … I do get why this would be difficult though, I would personally also prefer to promote/use a full opensource IDE.

Would you be OK with writing the free/libre version of the article first and, in the conclusion, offer to write a follow-up article about the podman/toolbox integration if you get “enough” +1 votes in the comments?

The problem is that Fedora Magazine is supposed to cater to what the community wants (i.e. FOSS) more so than what any given author might want. At least if there were some comments on a previous article requesting such content, we could point to that as an “excuse” for why we published it.

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

@job79

If it wouldn’t be a good fit for fedora magazine that is also fine. Then I will probably still write an article but then in a git repo. Only disadvantage would be that it would be way less visible.

Or if you write both articles, you could slip a link to your “full” version at the end of the free/libre version.

[job79]

@glb

Would you be OK with writing the free/libre version of the article first and, in the conclusion, offer to write a follow-up article about the podman/toolbox integration if you get “enough” +1 votes in the comments?

Yes that would be fine! As long as I can hint in the conclusion to this option I think it should be good.

[glb (Gregory Lee Bartholomew)]

OK then, +1 from me for the free/libre version of the article with a (possible, depending on community feedback follow-up article about podman/toolbox integration). We still need another “+1” from another editor before this has the “all clear” for Fedora Magazine.

Thanks!

[jakfrost (Stephen Douglas Snow)]

@job79

It would be possible to write an article without the podman/toolbox integration, then the free/libre versions would suffice.

Podman and Toolbox are both FOSS. I don’t see the issue.

[job79]

Problem is that the Dev Containers extension for visual studio code is only available in the IDE version compiled by microsoft, and Intellij only has dev containers support when using the paid version.

[rlengland (Richard England)]

+1 from me. I’ve created Pagure Card #281 to track the progress of your article and to use to communicate between the editors and the author.

Leave comments on that card with any questions or issues you have.
When you have the article in WordPress in a form that you wish the editors to review, please leave a WordPress preview link in a comment and we will take a look at it.

Thanks!