How is it possible, that Signal still only provides a .deb package and no .rpm, or even better AppImage or Flatpak? There is an unofficial Flatpak but is it secure?
How is it possible, that Signal still only provides a .deb package and no .rpm, or even better AppImage or Flatpak? There is an unofficial Flatpak but is it secure?
They can’t possibly provide a package for every distro.
Signal’s model, ie keep tight control over development and distribution of the client, and the absence of federation, it well suited for Apple/Google’s stores, but not at all for open-source and Linux’ ecosystem.
AppImages run on nearly every distro. Why arw they not providing that instead of a .deb?
Yes, AppImage can run on more distro.
Still AppImage has disadvantages over DEB: No auto-update, No/less system integration, Bigger install packages.
You are right. They can’t for every distro.
But fedora/rhel, Ubuntu/debian, and arch-based distros are the most commonly used. So they can provide official packages for those, and/or as the OP said, provide an official flatpak.
And to be fair, it’s a nice-to-have to have a better sense of trust, but given the unofficial ones are open source, it’s quite likely any maliciousness would be rooted out very quickly.