Flatpak uses unprivileged Linux containers to install and sandbox desktop apps. This talk gives an overview of how Flatpak and its portals behave and how they're implemented, both on the packaging/distribution side and the sandboxing/security side. It will also cover what problems Flatpak sets out to solve, the situations where Flatpak can help Debian achieve world domination by complementing what we already have, how it compares with other technologies, and the situations where some other technology (such as apt or Docker) is a better tool for the job. The intended audience for this talk is Debian maintainers with general packaging/sysadmin knowledge, but not necessarily a desktop or freedesktop.org development background.
Speakers: Simon McVittie