Fedora is known for consistently providing a reliable Linux desktop experience, while also shipping with the latest packages and offering multiple editions to cater to a wide range of users.
The Fedora Project also distributes Fedora Flatpaks, which are built from their RPM packages and maintained by them in their repository. Unfortunately, many of these are often unmaintained or broken, leading to a poor experience for users who aren’t usually aware they’re using them.
However, this issue has taken a more serious turn, involving the popular OBS project and Fedora's poorly maintained OBS Studio Flatpak.
Fedora Threatened With Legal Action
What started initially as a request to either remove or better present the unofficial OBS Studio Flatpak three weeks ago has now turned into an ultimatum. OBS lead Joel Bethke has stated that if Fedora doesn't remove all of OBS's branding from the unofficial Flatpak by February 21, 2025, they will pursue legal action against them.
The main issue here is that the unofficial OBS Studio Flatpak is in poor condition, causing many users to report issues to the OBS Studio developers, mistakenly thinking they are using the official build.
However, there's more to it. In a comment on a video by Brodi Robertson (check pinned comment), Joel shared that folks from Fedora were not taking this issue seriously, with one of them even resorting to name-calling by labeling the OBS Studio devs as being “terrible maintainers”.
To me, this doesn't sound appropriate at all. 😑
Since then, a major step has been taken by Neal Gompa, a well-known Fedora contributor and member of the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo). He has opened a new issue to remove Fedora's OBS Studio flatpak from the registry as soon as possible.
But something's not right…
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I really hope they fix this soon.
First discovered by Ni Rui, GNOME Software now seems to show an end-of-life message for both the official Flatpak by OBS Studio and the unofficial one provided by Fedora. I tested it out on my Fedora 41 installation, and that behavior was pretty apparent.
Luckily, this seems to be a temporary issue, as another community member, Chris Williams, chimed in, saying that this was due to the official Flatpak version of OBS Studio using an older, unsupported runtime.
In the end, I agree with this move to retire the unofficial OBS Studio flatpak, and to be honest, Fedora Flatpak's have become something of a hindrance. Doing away with them as a whole also works, in my opinion.
💬 What is your take on the situation? Did OBS Studio do the right thing?
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