My question is and what is not answered on internet is what is flatpak…A separate install of a new product or a jacket for the the installed libreoffice. In other words can one be installed without the other or can one uninstall the original. and why do both show up in the menu…?
yes both will show up in menu it is not like the installer for windows .exe or .msi rather is a different way of installing in which installing apps from flatpak in under non privileged not required root access and runs in a containerize environment like toolbox or podman or docker though the level of containerization is not same as docker but simply it is a sandboxed app with sandbox dependency with app defined sandboxing rules. so flatpak apps cant interfere with system dependency or any other way such as change system components.
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To give you some context: On Linux distributions, there is mainly 3 methods of installing apps:
1- Using rpm (or deb for debian based distros), managed by your package manager (dnf, apt…). This method installs apps system wide, that’s why it needs root permissions.
2- Using Flatpak: Has a different source for the apps (independent from your dnf managed rpms), runs apps in a sandbox, which allows to manage permissions.
3- Using snaps: not included in Fedora by default, somewhat similar to Flatpak.
If you install an app using rpm packages and Flatpak, you will have 2 entries in your menu, one for Flatpak launch, the other for the native launch (rpm).
Edit: Fixed some errors.
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There is a Fedora flatpak remote. https://fedoramagazine.org/an-introduction-to-fedora-flatpaks/ These flatpaks are built from Fedora rpms.
There are several other remotes available most noteably flathub which build flatpaks using other sources.
The default installation of the flatpak remotes is system not user, so the applications are installed system wide in /var/lib/flatpak
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/flatpak/blob/rawhide/f/flatpak-add-fedora-repos.service
https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora
You can double check this with flatpak remotes
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Fixed my previous comment, thanks!
I meant the dnf managed rpms do not affect the flatpaks.
Thank you Joe.