Jorge Castro, <s>one of the developers working on the next iteration of flatpak</s> (EDIT: See below, I was mistaken), says that “of course” flatpak 2.0 will depend on SystemD. Moreover, he thinks this dependence is so obvious that it was wrong of me to even ask.
https://hachyderm.io/@jorge/116619028047490652
Archive link:
https://megalodon.jp/2026-0523-0312-41/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116619028047490652

EDIT: But since Jorge isn’t actually a flatpak developer, what he said is likely nonsense and we should ignore it. It was wrong of me to amplify his thread.

The current version of flatpak does **not** depend on any init system. This lack of SystemD dependence is one of the advantages flatpak currently has over its rival snap. The "flatpak setup" page on flatpak.org endorses the use of flatpak on distros without SystemD, such as [Alpine](https://flatpak.org/setup/Alpine), [Void](https://flatpak.org/setup/Void%20Linux), [Guix](https://flatpak.org/setup/GNU%20Guix), [Slack](https://flatpak.org/setup/Slackware), [Pisi](https://flatpak.org/setup/Pisi%20GNU%20Linux), [Salix](https://flatpak.org/setup/Salix), [ChromeOS](https://flatpak.org/setup/Chrome%20OS), and [Gentoo](https://flatpak.org/setup/Gentoo). Other distros without systemd encourage the use of flatpaks, including [Chimera](https://chimera-linux.org/docs/configuration/flatpak) The decision to add a dependency which cuts off many distros currently using flatpak, including those which the flatpak developers themselves advertise as supporting flatpak, is a surprise. It also seems contrary to the stated mission of flatpak, which is to be a single package format that works on all Linux distros. Moreover, this decision comes at what seems like the worst possible time. SystemD [recently started AI-ifing](https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/AGENTS.md), and [adding plumbing for surveillance age censorship](https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/40954) (far beyond what any laws require of them), leading to an increased number of users who want to stop using it, including users like me who previously didn't care about init systems. EDIT: The develper in question has doubled-down, including claiming that "modern Linux" has "only SystemD." https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-0336-55/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116625264102622684 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-0337-21/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116625260525826470 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-0338-32/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116625256540295585 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-0338-49/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116625308101601470 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-0339-06/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116625329112111399 I should clarify that Jorge is just one person involved in flatpak development. It is currently unclear to what extent his statements reflect the position of the whole flatpak development team. EDIT 2: And now he's moved to gaslighting. https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-1008-26/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116626198724098296 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-1008-40/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116626278544247845 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0524-1008-55/https://hachyderm.io:443/@jorge/116626299556869473 EDIT 3: I have been told conflicting things about the extent to which Jorge is actually involved in flatpak development. However, someone else claiming to be a flatpak developer has also weighed in. Adrian Vovk takes a much less hostile tone than Jorge, but he also says he expects Flatpak 2 to depend on SystemD. He notes that it might be possible for distros to patch around the requirement, but that the upstream flatpak project will probably *not* accept contributions to make it work on other init systems. https://megalodon.jp/2026-0525-0628-46/https://fosstodon.org:443/@AdrianVovk/116626119745780463 https://megalodon.jp/2026-0525-0628-48/https://fosstodon.org:443/@AdrianVovk/116626156956101933 He also suggests that a SystemD dependency might be added to flatpak 1.x as well. https://megalodon.jp/2026-0525-0634-23/https://fosstodon.org:443/@AdrianVovk/116629630385486477 However, he stresses that no code for flatpak 2 has actually been written yet, and plans may change. EDIT 4: Jorge is apparently also a vibe-coder. https://github.com/castrojo/jorgepilot

EDIT 5: While I do not know for sure whether Jorge is involved with planning Flatpak 2, he has not made any commits directly to the existing flatpak repository.
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commits?author=castrojo
Several of his posts are worded in a way that sound like he is involved with flatpak development, and I took him at his word without checking myself. I may have caused more meta as a result. I’m sorry.

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So now I have to figure out what distro I am going to run. I currently use Debian Trixie, and rely on flatpak to get updated applications. Trixie has a pre-AI version of SystemD. I had considered trying to replace SystemD on Debian with OpenRC, <s>but if I would lose access to flatpak apps then staying on Debian at all seems a lot less appealing.

I had also been seriously considering switching to @alpinelinux , because their native package manager is really fast, stable, and awesome. But their package repository is a lot smaller than other distros, so I’m not sure I’d want to use it without flatpak.

I am now more seriously considering switching to @VoidLinux . I wanted a stable base system with frequently updated applications, but if that’s not an option I’d settle for a rolling distro that tries to be somewhat stable.</s>

Since it turned out this all started because one guy who isn’t even a flatpak developer made something up, my plan is back to what it was last week: wait until Debian Forky and then decide whether I want to stay with Debian or switch to something else.