Flathub's AI slop ban looks like it was the right call - OMG! Ubuntu

Skip to content

When Flathub banned AI-coded app submissions last month, some critics warned the platform was denying the future by dismissing a new wave of "vibe-coded" software as out-and-out "slop".

Well, new data suggests otherwise, as nearly three-quarters of the rejected apps are already dead, existing only a few months.

Linux developer Evangelos Paterakis, developer of Tuba, Turntable and others, did the digging, looking at 120 code repositories whose pull requests for inclusion on Flathub were rejected because of their heavy AI usage and given an "AI Slop1" tag.

Of those rejected, 88 are no longer under active development, many having deleted their source code entirely. Just 32 still show signs of life, but it makes for a 73% abandonment rate overall.

It nixes the idea users, so keen to benefit from a new wave of AI-coded wares, would rush off to use other formats and app stores since, it turns out, whatever might have been swept up in the ban didn’t appear to be anything anyone felt bothered about maintaining anyway.

Hips don’t lie, but stats…?

The methodology used here was not rigorous or academic. Paterakis acknowledges this themselves in a blog post titled "Democratizing Abandonware" (which is terrifically subtitled: "I’m not digging through this cemetery").

Open-source has always been a graveyard of solo hobby projects – something AI has amplified

And, sure, abandonment/attrition isn’t unique to AI. Open source has always been a graveyard for solo hobby projects, irrespective of whether a chatbot helped to write them or not.

But the lower barrier and the lack of personal involvement certainly amplifies it; fickle is as ever it was.

I know; I’ve spent ~16 years writing about new software and distros that kick off with enthusiasm, get people excited, only to succumb to the cobwebs and crows once the existing part wanes.

But Paterakis’ findings are not apropos of nothing either.

This data justifies Flathub’s ban was: volunteer reviewers being stuck reading reams of code the submitter hadn’t, then wasting time arguing with a machine agent (or a meat-sack intermediary) confidently dispensing word salad rather than actioning the fixes.

More apps ≠ good apps

Debate rages on what constitutes slopware – to me, 20 music players that look like increasingly garbled versions of Amberol drawn through through a game of telephone comes close – but a musing from Thom Holwerda at OSNews vibed with me.

Generating code that runs was never the hard part – it was making software that people want to use

His point is that if AI tools really do enable developers to focus more on quality and innovation – as the marketing and hype suggests – shouldn’t we be seeing some sign of it by now?

Sure, more apps are being made, but are they good apps or just vibe-coded simulacrum of things we already have, e.g., Pomodoro timers, note-taking apps, applets around APIs – things beginner coders were making before AI.

Because, to me, despite the boosterism, there’s little complexity or innovation to what’s being produced, and little thought given to why – no identifying unmet needs and designing a solution one can use AI to build. Where’s the vibe-coded Photoshop clone for Linux?

Generating code that runs was never the hard or the magical part, it was making software that answers a need and which people want to use.

Perhaps, like a return on AI investment, it’s a waiting game. The really compelling vibe-coded software is just around the corner, as soon as that next data center is online, in orbit, chained to a blackhole or wherever else the goalposts have been moved to.

Flathub volunteers add this tag manually to any pull request where the submitter appeared to be using chatbots to communicate with developers/respond to their feedback, or who submitted automated manifests, etc – tell-tale signs that things didn’t have a human in the real loop, basically. ↩︎

AI/ML

flathub

Share this postPost<br>Repost<br>Send<br>Share

Previous

Ubuntu 26.04 fixes trash dialog bug that defaulted to cancel

Next

This theme makes Discord look more at home on Ubuntu

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Popular This Week

AppManager makes AppImages easier to install and use on Ubuntu

Speeding Up<br>Firefox will update twice as often from September

Big Update<br>Linux 6.15 Kernel Released, This is What’s New

-commitment<br>Flathub’s AI slop ban looks like it was the right call

Ubuntu 26.04 fixes Papers bug that sent PDF links to wrong page

Latest Comments

Fred<br>I moved away from DING to the fork when the…

Ubuntu’s desktop icons extension finishes port to GTK4

kinggo<br>Did they increase the file rename dialogue? Because the current…

Ubuntu’s desktop icons extension finishes port to GTK4

Joey Sneddon<br>Thanks for doing so! Like many other commenters here, I…

Ubuntu 26.04 fixes trash dialog bug that defaulted to cancel

Joey Sneddon<br>No, it's been there since a 3x release...