Distribution strategy

[nickvergessen]

• Add makers (installers) for Windows, Linux, and Mac instead of zip archive #816
  • ZIP as a portable distribution
  • Windows
    • Squirrel.Windows as a primary Windows distributive #842
    • WIX MSI (add later if needed)
  • Mac
    • DMG as a primary macOS distributive #843
  • Linux
    • Flatpak as a primary Linux distributive #848
    • Snap as a secondary Linux distributive
    • AppImage as a secondary Linux distributive
• Sign releases #42
• Adding checksums to the releases #720
• Auto-updates #166

[sunjam]

I see Nextcloud desktop app available as:

• Flatpak
• AppImage
• Snap

So, I think those would be open packaging standards that could be worth considering on the Linux side for the Talk desktop app.

[HomemadeAdvanced]

It would be great if winget would be supported.

[ShGKme]

It would be great if winget would be supported.

I'll take care of it 🪟

[Refhi]

It would be great if winget would be supported.

I'll take care of it 🪟

Hi,

may I humbly ask for an update about the winget option ? (I'm waiting for a distribution strategy before spreading the tool)

Thanks !

[Fuseteam]

I see Nextcloud desktop app available as:

* [Flatpak](https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/)

* [AppImage](https://docs.appimage.org/)

So, I think those would be open packaging standards that could be worth considering on the Linux side for the Talk desktop app.

I would prefer a snap, as that in my experience that has the most seamless experience with updates (been using nextcloud desktop as a snap) but also because i can see it working on Ubuntu Touch in the future

[stefan6419846]

Your Snap link indicates that this is packaged by a third party and not by the Nextcloud team.

[RTechSn]

Windows packages could be distributed by Chocolatey or WinGet.

[Fuseteam]

Your Snap link indicates that this is packaged by a third party and not by the Nextcloud team.

so is the flatpak, only the appimage is officially distributed by the nextcloud team, that is beside the point of this issue tho ;)

[Areopagitics]

This App is absolutely awesome! The performance and features are better even than the official Signal flatpak I use often.

I'm really looking forward to an official release. I'm wondering if Tauri would be a better a choice over Eletctron for a smaller, faster and easier way to distribute.

[ShGKme]

I'm wondering if Tauri would be a better a choice over Eletctron for a smaller, faster and easier way to distribute.

At least in the past, it wasn't possible. When we started, Tauri didn't have WebRTC support, which is critical for calls.

Also, Electron allowed a quick start. It was a known production-ready and simple solution. Especially when the app is mostly frontend, and frontend developers usually don't know Rust, which is almost never used in Nextcloud ecosystem.

Tauri also brings issues with cross-platform, as it uses the default web viewer. It means, even for Talk Desktop we have Safari issues on Mac.

But in general - yes, we consider the possibility of migrating to Tauri some where in the future. I look forward to Frontend tooling move to Rust, with RSPack 1.0 release and coming soon Rolldown.

[Fuseteam]

That's a shame there are no official Flatpak packages in FlatHub

Maybe this should be added to 1.0 roadmap? #635

you do realize that's part of #816, right? which is already on the roadmap, given it's a preview and all

[Areopagitics]

I'm wondering if Tauri would be a better a choice over Eletctron for a smaller, faster and easier way to distribute.

At least in the past, it wasn't possible. When we started, Tauri didn't have WebRTC support, which is critical for calls.

Also, Electron allowed a quick start. It was a known production-ready and simple solution. Especially when the app is mostly frontend, and frontend developers usually don't know Rust, which is almost never used in Nextcloud ecosystem.

Tauri also brings issues with cross-platform, as it uses the default web viewer. It means, even for Talk Desktop we have Safari issues on Mac.

But in general - yes, we consider the possibility of migrating to Tauri some where in the future. I look forward to Frontend tooling move to Rust, with RSPack 1.0 release and coming soon Rolldown.

Thank you for the update! I'm sure the rust tooling will make the binary distribution easier especially with cargo-bundle / or the new kid cargo-packager

[LeSpocky]

Would it be possible to have good old Debian packages, or maybe even get this into the actual Debian packaging system so it can be installed through apt as usual?

[schiessle]

Are there plans to publish the flatpak at flathub?

I think this would be really nice because it would enable auto-updates via the package manager of most distributions.

[nickvergessen]

As soon as we finished the signing work for other distros we can have a look