The controversy around snaps is growing :-(

[Tom H]

On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 11:33 PM Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:


> This expresses some of my own concerns:
>
> https://jatan.blog/2020/05/02/ubuntu-snap-obsession-has-snapped-me-off-of-it/


* Software center can’t install Flatpak apps

I don't use the software GUIs, but some quick googling shows how to
install Flatpaks via the command-line

For the GUI, from the linked discourse.ubuntu.com: "For flatpak you
just need to install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak like you do today.
That would bring in the gnome-software as a deb, which will still be
maintained."

To me, not being able to install Flatpaks by default on Ubuntu is like
not being able to install RPMs on Ubuntu; except that in the case of
Flatpaks, you can do so with a little work. Yes, you can use "alien"
for RPMs, but even if the actual software then installs properly, the
post-install scripts are likely to fail.


* Browsing the Snap Store sucks

I don't use the software store GUIs.


* Slow and forced Chromium snap

I've just installed the Chromium snap and it launches as quickly as my
non-Snap Chrome, Chromium, and Firefox. My other Snap apps - Skype,
Zoom - also launch quickly. The writer's been suspended from
discourse.ubuntu.com, so I doubt his sincerity on the slowness point.

Forced Snap? Perhaps. Chromium isn't an easy app to package. It took
years for Fedora to have an rpm; IIRC, it was first packaged in 2016.
So if it's easier for Ubuntu to package Chromium as a Snap, that's
good, especially if it frees up resources for other work on the
distro.


* No control over updates

Ubuntu's shooting itself in the foot by not offering a "disable
updates" button/slide in the GUI and something like "refresh.never" at
the command-line, rather than only offer a way to defer an upgrade.
There's nothng but downside to this hand-holding; and negative threads
like the linked discourse.ubuntu.com one. Ubuntu should allow its
users to disable snap upgrades in the same way that it allows its
users to disable deb upgrades. If they shoot themselves in the foot,
it's their problem; just as it is in other OSes. The Ubuntu devs
shouldn't think that they always know better than their users, like
the Gnome devs.


> And this is a useful explanation:
>
> https://www.kevin-custer.com/blog/disabling-snaps-in-ubuntu-20-04/
>
> Some of my colleagues in the Linux business have commented on the
> intrusiveness of snaps.

More than Android and iOS apps?


> I am considering removing snap support on my own systems. If I can, I
> never use them. I enabled it on openSUSE experimentally and I have
> Spotify working that way, but the other 2 things I tried (rocket.chat
> and the lsd command) didn't work. :-(

lsd or lxd? :)