Canonical and Google partner to bring Flutter apps to Linux

A little over a year ago we talk to you from Flutter, a free and open source user interface development framework that comes straight from Google's Idea Factory. Among other things, it is used to develop apps for Android and iOS, and also to create applications for the Fuchsia of the same company. A few hours ago, the company of the great search engine and Canonical have announced an agreement that will allow the apps of Flutter; get to Linux.

The Canonical deal will result in a part that some users may not like: developers will have to create their apps and deliver them to Snapcraft, that is, they will be available as snap pack. And is that many of us prefer Flatpak packages, and even Linux Mint has completely got rid of snapD basically because they consider it a tyrannical incorporation on the part of the company that runs Mark Shuttleworth.

Flutter apps will be available as Snap packages

Tim Sneath, the product manager for the Flutter group, says this is a major advance because UI frameworks are rarely powerful and versatile enough for an operating system to depend on them. Mentioned that Windows is written in C ++ rather than .NET, even for applets like Calculator. Sneath also believes that this shows that Canonical is willing to invest in a serious and committed way to create applications for Linux, making Flutter on Linux an official part of Ubuntu. Additionally, companies can feel confident choosing Flutter - it's further evidence of its longevity and technical excellence, all according to Sneath.

Flutter started out as a mobile ui frame open source which helps developers to build native interfaces for Android and iOS. However, since May 2019, Flutter has allowed developers to build desktop, embedded, mobile, and web applications from the same code base. Developers can use Flutter on phones, handhelds, tablets, desktops, laptops, televisions, and smart TVs or displays.

Linux support

According to Google:

This work includes extensive refactoring of the engine to support desktop-style keyboard and mouse input, as well as top-level resizable windows. It also includes new UI capabilities that are well suited to the desktop, such as Material Density support and NavigationRail and experiments with deep integration into the underlying desktop OS with experiments in Dart: FFI and menu bar access. system and standard dialog boxes. All of this work was to ensure that, in addition to being suitable for mobile-style experiences, Flutter is ready to handle the first full-size desktop applications.

As for Canonical, the company also hopes that this move will invite developers to opt for Snap packages when creating your applications. Currently, they rival the Flatpak, but many developers prefer to deliver their apps to Flathub over Snapcraft. And there are also many of us who choose Flatpak applications over Snap, for reasons such as that they update much sooner or tend to be more fluid.

What the end user gains

Initially, greater variety of applications. When a developer creates an app, what he is interested in is that it reaches as many devices as possible and, the less he has to develop, the better for him. In other words, if a developer creates an app based on Flutter and, with very few changes, it can be used on iOS, Android, on desktop and now on Linux, they will gain in comfort, and we will have an option available that without the announced agreement today it would not be possible.

Now only we have to wait some time to see how everything evolves this. Of course, it must be made clear that nothing explained here means that native Android or iOS apps will reach Linux.