Is Prism Launcher the best Minecraft Launcher?

I recently switched to Prism Launcher and I’m gonna write down my thoughts about it, over the recent weeks, I have not been using the default Minecraft Launcher and now using something else, that thing is PrismLauncher. Today, I’m gonna cover what is it? How I discovered it? Why I switched? And why I stayed? Let’s get right into it. Seriously!

Video form

But what is PrismLauncher?

PrismLauncher is a free and open-source 3rd party Minecraft Launcher. It uses the instance system which basically means you can create a new .minecraft for a different instance of Minecraft. You can easily download mods, shaders, and resource packs from Modrinth and CurseForge. You can also easily update mods. Prism Launcher also uses a Qt toolkit with support for theming. If you’re on Linux you could also use Kvantum to theme, but do be careful it may break it, I am using Kvlibadwaita right now, and it looks unbroken. But do consider that it can break with kvantum.

How did I know it though?

I hate to admit it, but I first heard of it through drama. A while ago, PolyMC’s founder, Lenny went rogue to basically kicked everyone from the project to own the libs or whatever…. The Internet is so stupid with its tribalism sometimes, if you want to know more about this topic check out this video by Brodie Robertson. So, the developers all moved to Prism Launcher, and that’s how I know it. I was basically not using any third-party launcher at the time, so I didn’t care but the launcher is now known to exist for me and it’s also open source which is a big factor for me to consider using something third-party. 

Why did I switch now?

Well not now, it’s a couple of weeks ago. On the 7th of June 2023, the malware fractureiser hit. The malware infects Linux and Windows PCs. Hey, we are now being targeted! Does that mean we’re important? Probably not. One of the few safer things is Flatpak, see, Minecraft Java is really broken in its permissions and has access to a lot of things they really should not have access to. Flatpak is a sandbox solution on Linux, that increases security. As orowith2os said

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If you use Linux, use the PrismLauncher Flatpak and be very careful
of what you give it access to through utilities such as Flatseal.
By default, it has no access to the needed directories to compromise
the system. Other sandbox escapes may be possible, but the malware
 most likely doesn't account for running inside of a sandbox of this sort.

so, I decided that y’know what going forward, I’m using the Flatpak version. There is a repackaged Minecraft Launcher in Flathub, but it signs you out every time, so it’s annoying. I decide to switch to Prism Launcher instead.

Why did I stay though?

To keep it simple: Mod updates, Flatpak, Instances. I like how you can easily update your mods directly from Modrinth or Curseforge, I think it’s a genuinely useful feature, a One-click update for mods (Except those like Replay Mod). I also like that it officially supports Flatpak, a universal and more secure way of distributing applications on Linux, which has made malware, like fractureiser not work. I like the multiple instances, of how you can have different .minecraft for each mod packs you play. This is doable in the default Minecraft Launcher but it takes more effort. This one is just automatic just like that. This launcher makes everything about installing mods in Minecraft easier. This launcher makes everything about installing mods in Minecraft easier you can install Forge and Fabric in one click I remember getting into Minecraft modding and I was a little bit confused since I was coming from Bedrock with the add-on system, I think this goes a long way in making it even easier than Minecraft Bedrock add-on. I would argue

In Conclusion

I think this a very good Minecraft Launcher, and the fact that it is free and open-source means that they aren’t gonna do anything sketchy with it because you can go read the source code. They have a discord server where you can ask questions and have people help you with whatever issue you might have. If you’re into modding or at least using Optifine Alternatives, I very much recommend this, as it makes it a whole lot easier.