falkon: Deprecate manifest

[SorYoshino]

The reasons for deprecation are as follows:

The Windows version of falkon is no longer available. Although I couldn’t find any official announcement regarding this on the website, the absence of Windows platform results for it on https://apps.kde.org/ supports this conclusion.

In addition, the 3.1.0 version provided in the manifest was released in 2019. Users who continue to use it will inevitably face compatibility and security issues.

• Relates to [Bug]: falkon version is too old #15341
• Relates to Outstanding Excavator issues #16379

• Use conventional PR title: <manifest-name[@version]|chore>: <general summary of the pull request>
• I have read the Contributing Guide

[coderabbitai]

Important

Review skipped

Review was skipped as selected files did not have any reviewable changes.

💤 Files selected but had no reviewable changes (1)

• deprecated/falkon.json

You can disable this status message by setting the reviews.review_status to false in the CodeRabbit configuration file.

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[z-Fng]

#16564 (comment)

Closing this as not planned for the following reasons:

• The binaries of latest version used in manifest (3.1.0) are still available for download.
• It seems they paused development for a few years, and the recent Windows builds haven’t been released on KDE.
  See: https://invent.kde.org/network/falkon/-/issues/38

[SorYoshino]

I agree that we should continue handling the existing PRs according to the current process until we reach a conclusion. However, I still want to share some information and observations I’ve gathered in this PR.

• In fact, users had already noticed this issue back in 2021, and the developers responded at the time. The developers seem more focused on the development of falkon itself and are not interested in maintaining a Windows build.
  See: https://invent.kde.org/network/falkon/-/issues/2

• I believe it is unlikely that this software will have a Windows version again. Its compatibility and security issues will only become more challenging over time.

• I am more inclined to deprecate it directly. If the upstream project later provides a Windows version again, I will submit a PR to make it available once more. Alternatively, as I mentioned in Outstanding Excavator issues #16379 (comment), this could also be addressed via GitHub Actions.

[z-Fng]

Thank you for the information you provided~ However, I still stand by my point. IMO, a package manager should not decide on behalf of users that old versions are no longer needed. It may inform or warn users about outdated versions, such as ScoopInstaller/Versions#2353, but the choice to upgrade, replace, or remove a version must remain with the user. As long as the original binary files are still accessible for download, the version should be permanently retained and made available to users.

[SorYoshino]

Everyone has their own perspective, and as long as the reasoning is sound, I believe there is nothing wrong with that. I hope more people will pay attention to this issue, and that it can eventually be discussed and resolved.

[z-Fng]

Exactly. I hope our community can come to a conclusion soon.