On the command line the user is able to choose the commit form the flatpak repository: $ flatpak update --commit=<COMMIT> org.example.App This can be used to go back to a working version of the app. It would be nice, if Discover would provide a way to do that form the GUI.
How do you envision this to work? I'm afraid it may pull quite some complex UI for a rather corner-case.
> How do you envision this to work? Visualize the output of $ flatpak remote-info --log and let the user choose the commit? > for a rather corner-case. I don't think it's that uncommon. I have seen (and caused) updates at Flathub that broke certain functionality of an app, e.g.: https://github.com/flathub/org.kde.krita/issues/12 I have also seen it (being able to easily switch app versions) advertised as an advantage that AppImage has over Flatpak.
flatpak 1.5.0 introduced support for version pinning: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/releases/tag/1.5.0
What % of worldwide users of Discover are realistically going to ever need to downgrade an app? "Discover may be much but it is not an expert application for minute control of repos. It is not a replacement intended to compete with the terminal for experienced expert users. Our goal has been to focus clearer on a certain set of users where an application such as this is not only needed but critical to their usage. To do this we have excluded other user groups entirely from the application goals. This doesn't mean they can't use Discover just that their specific use cases may not be perfectly covered." From: https://userbase.kde.org/Discover Anyone who is even aware that you can downgrade an app in the first place is likely to be a software developer, programmer, power user etc and they would probably just use the command line anyway. I agree with Aleix here, I think this is quite a specific corner case.
(In reply to john.liptrot from comment #4) > What % of worldwide users of Discover are realistically going to ever need > to downgrade an app? > > "Discover may be much but it is not an expert application for minute control > of repos. It is not a replacement intended to compete with the terminal for > experienced expert users. Our goal has been to focus clearer on a certain > set of users where an application such as this is not only needed but > critical to their usage. To do this we have excluded other user groups > entirely from the application goals. This doesn't mean they can't use > Discover just that their specific use cases may not be perfectly covered." > > From: https://userbase.kde.org/Discover > > Anyone who is even aware that you can downgrade an app in the first place is > likely to be a software developer, programmer, power user etc and they would > probably just use the command line anyway. I agree with Aleix here, I think > this is quite a specific corner case. Since you asked with "ever", I think close to 100% will at lest once need such a feature! I needed once to revert to an older version of a downloader that I used as the updated version broke it so bad that I could not use it at all anymore. It was a pain to find an older .deb version and then to fight with discover to not update it again! Your response is very disappointing for the power users an your motto "Simple by default, powerful when needed"! Where is the "powerful when needed" part? Aren't enough just "simple" DEs and software centers out there? Why do you want that Discover remain a good enough software center, good just for noobs? Why we, the power users, that maybe we are more tech-savvy and experienced an not being afraid of using the terminal, always be forced to use the terminal to do some stuff? We chose Plasma exactly because is more advanced than other DEs and its default programs are also more advanced than the competition. In that case why should the software center not be more advanced than the ones of the other DEs?
Yes, in principle this is a thing that I think makes sense. In KDE Linux we let you roll back your whole OS for various reasons; letting you to the same for apps it basically just re-using that same logic.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #6) > Yes, in principle this is a thing that I think makes sense. In KDE Linux we > let you roll back your whole OS for various reasons; letting you to the same > for apps it basically just re-using that same logic. Nice to hear a positive attitude and example about this too. Even though I don't blame the developer or users that I replied to for his opinion argument in a bit other direction. I haven't KDE Linux yet and probably I never will as I'm very happy with Debian, especially because I use it with the 'testing' repository which is now pretty up do date with KDE releases. But one thing that I hate in Debian and probably in more than 90% of the Linux distros is that they don't have a back / snapshot and a restore / rollback system when something bad or unwanted happens, which is normal to happen eventually. And instead they just put everything on you and blame you for it. Like: You upgraded that! You installed that! You didn't upgraded that! You didn't installed that! You changed that! You didn't change that! You made a FrankenDebian! Since Debian and many other distros don't provide this backup / snapshot + restore / rollback system, it would be great that at least for programs that we manually install / update, we have a way to rollback to a previous version. But of course it's up to the KDE developers to think about how hard or much of a burden would be to implement this and find the good compromise. Honestly, I wish that Debian and other distro developers would justt implement a backup and restore system that would get everything back when needed, so we can peacefully update or install new things without much fear of breaking things too bad, which happens no matter how experienced you are, but I don't think that will happen too soon. Not even for us that we are already using BTRFS, where it would be easier to implement. The most perfect setup that I had, where I had the most peace of mind was Windows 7 + Deep Freeze, where I could try whatever I wanted (that affected only the C: partition), so installing updates or new programs and running them as after a restart all the changes were gone. If I really wanted to keep those updates and install new programs permanently, I had to disable Deep Freeze before restarting, then do those changes and restart again. Unfortunately a similar feature to Deep Freeze is not available on Linux as I tried a few years ago. Maybe the immutable thing is trying to have that, but I still would rather have a back-up & restore kind of thing or even better something that at Discover level if it was just one program affected, as I don't think I want everything rolled back, as it would be bad for downloads and other things that have a progress over time, since I'd be losing their progress.