Re: November 18, 2025 Working Working Group Meeting

Hi, here is my Gemini-assisted summary for this meeting.

Summary

The Working Group, including Michael Catanzaro, Neal Gompa (Conan 
Kudo), Sebastian Wick, Michel Lind, and Matthias Clasen, met to discuss 
ticket 463 concerning the prioritization of Fedora Flatpaks versus 
Flathub in GNOME Software. Michael Catanzaro presented a revised "last 
attempt" proposal to remove the existing Fedora Flatpak repository and 
introduce a new, selective Fedora Workstation Flatpak repository, while 
suggesting deferring the issue of removing and coordinating with 
Flathub due to ongoing discussions with Jef and other stakeholders. The 
group ultimately approved replacing the existing Fedora Flatpak repo 
with the new Fedora Workstation Flatpak repo, which will "primarily" 
contain software preinstalled in Fedora Workstation, with Tomáš 
Popela abstaining from the vote.

Details

Discussion on Fedora Flatpaks and Flathub Prioritization (Ticket 463)

Michael Catanzaro announced that the entire meeting would focus on 
ticket 463, a major issue regarding deprioritizing or removing Fedora 
Flatpaks and prioritizing Flathub in GNOME Software, which has 
generated significant discussion. Previous attempts to reach a 
conclusion failed, with the working group rejecting a proposal to 
filter Fedora Flatpaks and failing to approve a reordering of software 
sources to place Fedora Flatpaks last. A key previous agreement was 
that any changes to software source prioritization must be contingent 
on GNOME Software first allowing users to override the default 
prioritization.

Michael Catanzaro's Revised Proposal

Michael Catanzaro presented a "last attempt" proposal, which included 
completely removing the existing Fedora Flatpak repository and 
introducing a new, highly selective Fedora Workstation Flatpak 
repository. The proposal also suggested removing Flathub from Fedora's 
existing third-party software repositories due to supply chain security 
concerns, and instead requesting that Flathub provide a subset of open 
source software built on trusted infrastructure for potential 
enablement by default, but with lower priority than Fedora sources.

Discussion on Flathub Subset Proposal

Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) questioned discussing the Flathub subset 
because it does not yet exist and suggested the Fedora Council might 
possibly block such a proposal. Sebastian Wick argued that it is 
necessary to discuss and agree on what is wanted to inform Flathub's 
development, while Michel Lind advocated for documenting Fedora's 
requirements with the caveat that they may not all be met. Matthias 
Clasen and Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) mentioned that Jef was already 
initiating discussions with Flathub and other distros about policies, 
suggesting coordination before presenting a formal request.

Decision to Reframe and Stage the Proposal

Due to the ongoing discussions with Jef and other stakeholders, Michael 
Catanzaro proposed modifying the plan to remove the Flathub component 
from the immediate proposal, deciding to separate the issue into stages 
and focus first on the Fedora Flatpak repos. Neal Gompa (Conan Kudo) 
emphasized starting with what to add before removing existing repos, as 
something must be in place, especially for Silverblue users.

Defining the Scope of the Fedora Workstation Flatpak Repository

Michael Catanzaro initially suggested the new repo contain "only" 
software preinstalled in Fedora Workstation, but Neal Gompa (Conan 
Kudo) objected to such a rigid scope, fearing future limitations. 
Sebastian Wick suggested that if multiple repos exist, the scope of the 
Workstation repo could remain narrow. The group agreed to modify the 
scope to say the new repository would contain "primarily" software 
preinstalled in Fedora Workstation, keeping the definition less 
restrictive.

Approval of Fedora Flatpak Repo Switch-Over

The Working Group approved the proposal to replace the existing Fedora 
Flatpak repo with the new Fedora Workstation Flatpak repo. The change 
will be a direct switch-over, meaning the existing repo will be removed 
only once the new one is available. Most participants, including Allan 
Day and Matthias Clasen, favored this step, although Tomáš Popela 
chose to abstain due to unresolved concerns about the basic premises.

Next Steps and Announcements

The discussion on Flathub requirements will be deferred until after 
Michael Catanzaro meets with Jef and other stakeholders, with the next 
meeting scheduled for December 2nd due to a break for Thanksgiving/Red 
Hat conflicting meetings. Michael Catanzaro noted that the 
Workstation-related part of the issue is considered largely resolved. 
Matthias Clasen announced their intention to present an update on 
Fedora Workstation 43 at the Fedora Release Party, and confirmed that 
Khalev is doing fine and has handed over ownership of requested 
packages. Cisco was also noted to have fixed their OpenH264 repo, now 
only blocking regions that are actually sanctioned.

Suggested next steps

 - Matthias Clasen will prepare some slides and present an update on 
Federal Workstation 43 at the Federal Release Party on Friday.
 - Michael Catanzaro will talk to Jef and schedule a follow-up meeting 
regarding the Flathub matter.
 - Matthias Clasen will reach out to Jef regarding the meeting about 
Flatpak/Flathub policies to see what the planning is.


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