The Librem 5 already has access to an incredible collection of software through the PureOS Store and will be getting official Flatpak support in the future. Flatpak is great because it makes it easy to package, distribute and sandbox applications, preventing them from accessing other apps or files. Regular Debian packages don’t have the same isolation offered by Flatpak, but they have access to the complete GNU/Linux stack.

How to secure Non-flatpak apps

This is where AppArmor steps in, which has recently been enabled on the Librem 5. AppArmor lets you set permissions for the resources an app can access or modify. The Librem 5 comes with several of its applications setup with AppArmor. This has laid the groundwork to apply security to all applications running outside Flatpak.

Flatpak status

We already ship Flatpak on the device, which means you can install Flatpak apps from anywhere on the Librem 5, but we’re still in the process of curating our selection of Flatpak apps to feature in the PureOS Store.

Flatpak and AppArmor take completely different approaches, but the goal is the same: provide configurable privacy and security.