Firefox snap updates for non-technical users

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

Colin Law wrote:
>Ian Bruntlett wrote:

>> On R's system, Firefox is running pretty much all the time - which
>> might be deferring the updates till later.
>
>I don't think that would stop it updating, I think it would update
>and the new one would take effect the next time FF was started.

You're right, but the notification tells you to close Firefox to
avoid disruptions. The problem is that if you obey it and close
Firefox, nothing happens unless it's time for a scheduled "refresh"
of Snap, so I always choose to manually induce a refresh and get it
over with. In case it's of interest, this command can be used to
check when the next refresh will happen, but I usually don't even
bother:

snap refresh --time

Note that the refreshes usually break my Firefox panel shortcut
(created by right-clicking the Firefox entry in the main menu and
choosing the "Add to Panel (Widget)" option, causing me to have to
delete the (invisible, but still there) shortcut and recreate it. If
R has made a panel shortcut, this may happen to him as well.

Although I understand that Snap can be a useful program, I'm strongly
of the opinion that it should not have been used by default in Ubuntu
- at least not yet. Since it's a high-maintenance piece of software
that you have to be aware of and intervene with on a somewhat
frequent basis, it should only have been offered as an optional
package that can be installed by folks who want it and know exactly
what they're getting into (slow loading times, an
inconsistently-named-and-visible folder, misleading "refresh"
notifications that don't necessarily result in immediate refreshes
when obeyed, disruptions regardless of whether refresh notifications
are or aren't obeyed, frequently-broken panel shortcuts that need to
be replaced, years of waiting for bugs to get fixed, etc.). At the
very least, it shouldn't have been used with such a popular piece of
software as Firefox.

There's some interesting additional reading here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1412140/how-to-solve-pending-update-of-firefox-snap-close-the-app-to-avoid-disruptio

And here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/v2j60h/pending_update_of_firefox_snap_close_the_app_to/

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.