eg. change this:
runtime: org.gnome.Platform
runtime-version: "46"
to this:
runtimes:
- org.gnome.Platform/46
- org.gnome.Platform/45
- org.freedesktop.Platform/20.08
- org.kde.Platform/5.15
Many people complain about flatpaks taking up too much space. Allowing for more runtimes to be shared between apps would take up less space. However, this has been denied.
If I am an app developer and I know my app runs on several different runtimes, why shouldn’t I be able to specify all of those runtimes? Are there technical reasons why this is a bad idea?
EDIT: I mean a list of runtimes of which one must be installed, not a list of runtimes of which all must be installed.
A runtime is about 1GB, that’s 100 photos or a 2 minute video. I don’t worry about such things. Flatpak’s size is no problem.
Apps become outdated, or at least don’t get updated in time. You’re stuck on old runtimes because you want to save 1 or 2 GBs.
If you want to save space, update the outdated app. If everything is included in 46 and nothing changed, updating is straoght forward.
I do worry about it. It is not just disk space but RAM as well to have these duplicated libraries. Often that is at a premium for me.
It is also a security problem.
It is also a pain to update. Most of my systems update with a single command.
Anyway, use Flatpaks if you like. If I used a distro with a limited package library or out of date apps, I would use it too.