Bug 500734 - Application Dashboard: Disambiguate same app installed from different sources
Summary: Application Dashboard: Disambiguate same app installed from different sources
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Application Dashboard widget (show other bugs)
Version: 6.3.0
Platform: Other Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Marco Martin
URL:
Keywords: usability
Depends on:
Blocks: 499065
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Reported: 2025-02-25 16:04 UTC by Nate Graham
Modified: 2025-03-13 16:21 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Nate Graham 2025-02-25 16:04:39 UTC
If you install the same app from different sources (i.e. Flatpak and distro packages) then they can appear identical in Application Dashboard.

As long as both have the same AppStream ID, we can teach Application Dashboard to know they're the same app and visually disambiguate them somehow.
Comment 1 Tom 2025-03-13 16:21:43 UTC
Hi, I figured it out. I am distinguishing apps by their <APP_NAME>.desktop file location. There are several paths for .desktop files. 
1. /usr/share/applications or /usr/local/share/applications/ --> all apps installed with official distro repository 
2. ~/.local/share/applications/ --> user-specific applications
3. /var/lib/flatpak/ (by default) or any other specified path during installation I think --> flatpak , whole .desktop path must contain flatpak substring
4. /var/lib/snapd/desktop (by default or any other specified path during installation I think) --> snaps 

Should we have some special unified mark if app is not installed by default "official" way or should we have dedicated mark for each app installed from different sources(1-4 mentioned above) ? 

Here is an example how it look like for "native" distro Firefox and Firefox installed with Flatpak: https://i.imgur.com/VnldTFW.png

p.s. This is solution by looking at  .desktop file path, I think we can also distinguish apps by executable command in .desktop files it proposed solution is not correct.