var img = document.createElement('img'); img.src = "https://webstats.gnome.org//piwik.php?idsite=40&rec=1&url=https://docs.flathub.org/" + location.pathname; img.style = "border:0"; img.alt = "tracker"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(img,s);
Skip to main content

Runtimes

Runtimes supply the essential dependencies required by applications, and each application must be built to target a specific runtime and its associated branch.

As runtimes are distribution-agnostic, they offer a stable, cross-platform foundation for applications ensuring they remain functional independent of operating system updates.

From a user and developer perspective, it is advantageous for Flatpak apps to standardize around a limited number of runtimes derived from a shared base runtime. This approach simplifies hosting and maintenance, enhances compatibility and increases consistency.

Currently hosted runtimes​

Flathub hosts three major runtimes currently.

  • Freedesktop runtime: This is the base runtime for the GNOME and KDE runtimes and provides the toolchain stack, graphics stack and all the Flatpak extension points used by other runtimes.

    A given branch of the Freedesktop runtime has a 2 year support period after which they are declared EOL. A new major version is published on August of every year. The release schedule can be found on Gitlab and announcements of new major version releases are made on Flathub Discourse. Release notifications are also available by subscribing to releases via Gitlab notifications or via the RSS link in the releases page.

    The Freedesktop platform (org.freedesktop.Platform and org.freedesktop.Sdk) provides strict ABI/API stability in a major version.

  • GNOME runtime: This is the GNOME runtime built on top of the Freedesktop runtime and provides additional libraries and tooling used by the GNOME Platform.

    Major version releases of the runtime are synced with GNOME releases and are announced on GNOME Discourse. Usually a given branch of the runtime is supported for an year and EOL-ed upon the release of a newstable version.

  • KDE runtime: This is the KDE runtime built on top of the Freedesktop runtime and provides the Qt stack along with additional libraries used by the KDE platform.

    Qt5 LTS (based on KDE's Qt patch collection) branches are created on Freedesktop runtime major version releases and Qt6 branches are created on new Qt6 releases. More information about the support policy can be found on the wiki and announcements for new runtime branch releases are made on the KDE Discourse.

Check software available in runtimes​

Please see the Flatpak documentation on this.