README: Update information about portal #147
Conversation
Its support has been added in !108.
|
The Known Limitations section had an outdated entry too... |
README.md
Outdated
|
|
||
| ### What is a portal? | ||
|
|
||
| Unlike Windows and macOS, Linux does not have a file chooser baked into the operating system. Linux applications that want a file chooser usually link with a library that provides one (such as GTK, as in the Linux screenshot above). This is a mostly acceptable solution that many applications use, but may make the file chooser look foreign on non-GTK distros. | ||
|
|
||
| Flatpak was introduced in 2015, and with it came a standardized interface to open a file chooser. Applications using this interface did not need to come with a file chooser, and could use the one provided by Flatpak. This interface became known as the desktop portal, and its use expanded to non-Flatpak applications. Now, most major desktop Linux distros come with the desktop portal installed, with file choosers that fit the theme of the distro. Users can also install a different portal backend if desired. There are currently two known backends: GTK and KDE. (XFCE does not currently seem to have a portal backend.) | ||
| Flatpak was introduced in 2015, and with it came a standardized interface to open a file chooser. Applications using this interface did not need to come with a file chooser, and could use the one provided by Flatpak. This interface became known as the desktop portal, and its use expanded to non-Flatpak applications. Now, most major desktop Linux distros come with the desktop portal installed, with file choosers that fit the theme of the distro. Users can also install a different portal backend if desired. There are currently many backends: GTK, Gnome, KDE, or wlroots; see the [desktop portal page](https://flatpak.github.io/xdg-desktop-portal/) for a complete list. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Hmm, I think I was told that xdg-desktop-portal-wlr doesn't have a file chooser, and so wlroots users need to also install another portal backend to use a file chooser. Do you know if wlroots really supports it now?
There was a problem hiding this comment.
My bad, I was too hasty...
From my (slower) understanding (and just for the file chooser part):
- xdg-desktop-portal-wlr still does not support it.
- xdg-desktop-portal-gnome depends on xdg-desktop-portal-gtk to provide it (according to
apt show xdg-desktop-portal-gnome). - xdg-desktop-portal-xapp too.
- xdg-desktop-portal-gtk implements its own file chooser.
- xdg-desktop-portal-kde too.
- xdg-desktop-portal-lxqt too.
So, many desktop managers support it (my half-baked wording) but the backends providing the file chooser are only Gtk, KDE, and LXQt (the original wording).
If you are fine with it, I will simply reuse the original text and add LXQt as a third backend.
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Thanks for the elaboration! Yes, I think we can add LXQt as a third backend, and also adopt your other suggestion to say that Cinnamon, MATE and XFCE can rely on the Xapp backend.
|
I forget to tell that Cinnamon, MATE & Xfce can support portal with the Xapp backend (which depends on the GTK one). AFAICT, other desktop environment do not seems to support portal. So:
could be rewritten into:
|
|
Thanks for the last fixes and the merge. |
The section about portal seems to be a bit outdated.