I get what they're going for - a way to ship self-contained (usually end-user-facing) applications with any dependencies they need without any risk of breaking other applications in the system. Unfortunately, it just results in breaking those applications specifically instead, in weird and stupid ways that are difficult to debug.
I think if snaps did the Flatpak thing - extract to a local directory instead of living on squashfs forever, or even storing them as an uncompressed disk image instead of squashfs - it might be more reasonable, but at that point you may as well just use Flatpaks like everyone else wants.
[0] - Add the following to `/etc/apt/preferences.d/no-ubuntu-firefox`:
Package: firefox
Pin: release l=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -1
This will make any `firefox` package from any repository with the `Ubuntu` label (i.e. an official Ubuntu repository) have a -1 priority, or 'never install ever'.
Trust is so hard won and so easily lost. If I can't trust `apt install firefox` to do what it says on the tin, how can I trust anything else in the repository? Maybe next year Canonical decides to replace systemd with one that includes includes freemium access to helpful AI services from Canonical?
That, and in case of snap, is to create artifical market share for their proprietary and paid solutions by preinstalling it on the free version.
But many people will never pay for Linux and it's even causing people to move away (eg to Mint which removes snap)
Perhaps it makes sense in the enterprise market though. They're always trying to push launchpad to us at work and I'm sure this will integrate with snap. But launchpad doesn't work for us because it only works with Ubuntu. So it's just a non starter for us, we have more distros to support. Sure Ubuntu is the biggest in our environment but we want a single pane of glass for everything. More similarities between distros would make that a lot easier.
Similarly to rust coreutils, fake sudo and the likes that they push.
I want my OS updates to be boring. Granted I'm using Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) so the Gnome stuff has nothing to do with my use, but the fact that there is nothing there that I have to fix or anticipate or work around or develop a new workflow for is terrific. That's what I love about the Ubuntu family - the last time I had a major upheaval with my desktop system was the year after KDE 4.0 was released... I think over a decade and a half ago. I really have not had to think about my desktop since.
[1] https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu
- Easy access to (newer versions of) some particular package like a device driver in distro repos[0]
- You prefer the Kubuntu default experience more and don't want to customize
- Company policy
[0]: For most packages, ~half the time Debian stable is ahead of Ubuntu LTS as the former is the base of the latter. Currently latest Ubuntu LTS 24.04 is still based on Debian oldstable. It will catch up with 26.04, until next Debian stable release. Sometimes, though, Ubuntu do their own backports or releases where Debian stable does not.
> This work includes fully managing deb packages directly in App Center, beginning the deprecation of older system tools
Are the CLI apps dpkg, apt and, well, snap all of them "older system tools"? Are we going to be cattle-prodded into the GUI?
I personally welcome this change as the current GUI is indeed a bit confusing.
I used this for a long time and still do sometimes. However, Arch works well enough now that I don't need to bother with Windows anymore. It is much more efficient for working with containers as there is no VM involved.
> laying the groundwork
So with constant focus, how many more years before the feeling is reached on top of that groundwork . The map is rather fuzzy
That said, I find myself increasingly at odds with the direction they're taking. The whole Snap vs. Flatpak debacle is exhausting, and personally, I'm not a fan of either. I'd take a standard apt repo over containerized desktop apps any day. Seeing core applications migrate to Snaps and the recent decision to move coreutils to alternate implementations feels like a bridge too far for my taste.
There's also the creeping Proprietary integrations to consider. To be honest, this is more of a philosophical stance than a practical one. Ubuntu is still a fantastic "get work done" distro, and I still use it on my office laptop because it just works and it's the only destro that got my employer's stamp of approval.
But for my personal setup? I've moved on. It's Arch for the desktop and Debian for servers. Nothing else really hits that sweet spot of control and simplicity for me anymore.
It's a classical embrace and extinguish strategy.
I've officially missed a whole cycle!
jkjk, thanks for the hard work, I'll wait as long as it takes.