# Flatpak Topics: [[Linux package managers]] Flatpak is an application deployment system that packages software in a way that separates them cleanly from the operating system. Applications are installed on the user level, which eliminates the need of superuser permissions. It also minimizes side effects and undesirable interactions between applications and the OS. Flatpak is the main way of installing applications on [[Fedora Silverblue]]. ## Desktop files While each Flatpak application has its own separate filesystem tree that contains all its files, including its `.desktop` definitions, Flatpak collects all `.desktop` files also under one central location: `/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications`. The same applies to user-specific applications, just replace `/var/lib/flatpak` with `~/.local/share/flatpak/`. See also: [Where are all the installed flatpak apps .desktop files located](https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/1286) ## Setting the default browser Making a browser that was installed as a flatpak the default one using its settings doesn't work. It has to be set via `xdg-settings`. ```bash xdg-settings set default-web-browser org.mozilla.firefox.desktop ``` ## Troubleshooting - [[Allow USB access to Brave installed from Flathub]] --- ## Related - [[Immutable desktop operating system]]