Two types of next-generation packages were launched in 2015. The first to arrive officially were the Flatpak, in September, while the Snap arrived a month later, but it was not included in any version by default until the release of Ubuntu 16.04 in April 2016. There are many Linux distributions compatible with these types of packages and there will be one more soon: Manjaro will launch fpakman to manage them.
As we can read in an article published in the Manjaro forum, fpakman is a GUI (user interface software) that will allow you to manage Snap and Flatpak packages. Manjaro will launch like this an alternative software store to others such as Ubuntu Software, the Snap Store o Discover from KDE. This will allow users of the Xfce, KDE and GNOME versions of Manjaro to easily find and install software such as Spotify, Skype or GIMP in their Snap versions or Lollypop in their Flatpak version.
fpakman, Manjaro's alternative to Snap Store and Discover
Another novelty that Manjaro mentioned in his article is that the current trial version comes with FreeOffice as the office suite by default. The intention when using the Softmaker suite is to offer the best compatibility with Microsoft Office. Other new features available in the new Manjaro «Testing Update» are:
- Xfce 4.14-pre3.
- Updated kernel.
- Many Haskell updates.
- The Manjaro Juhraya ISOs have been updated, including support for the pre-activated Snap and Flatpak packages in Xfce, KDE, and GNOME.
From what is explained in this short article, two things must be taken into account: we are talking about a «Testing Update», which is a trial version of the operating system on which future changes are tested; On the other hand, right now they have only pre-activated support for Flatpak and Snap packages in the Xfce, KDE and GNOME versions of Manjaro. In any case, they have announced major changes, and at least one of them is positive.
