Where apps come from
System, User, Flatpak and Snap — and how to tell two copies of one app apart.
Linux apps can be installed several ways, and MSL finds all of them:
| Source | Installed by | Badge |
|---|---|---|
| System | the distro's package manager (apt, apk, pacman, dnf) | none — most apps are these |
| User | you, for your Linux user only (~/.local/share/applications) | User |
| Flatpak | flatpak install | Flatpak |
| Snap | snap install | Snap |
Only non-system apps get a badge; on most instances every app is a system one, and a badge on all of them would be noise.
The same app twice#
Install GIMP from the package manager and from Flatpak and you'll see two GIMP tiles — one plain, one badged Flatpak. They're genuinely different installs, and each can be added to Applications or pinned separately.
When there's more than one source, a picker appears in the toolbar — All · System · User · Flatpak · Snap — to show just one. Typing flatpak or snap in the search field does the same.