It's a shame that chromium's apt package uses snap now. Startup time increased from ~0.2 to 5-10 seconds. Using Brave fixes this.
Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
11–20 of 436 posts
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#12I installed keepassxc using a snap, but because it was in a snap browser integration didn't work with my browser because of the snap isolation, rendering it useless. Also it's kind of weird that hey Damon has to run just so that I can install snaps and one Daemon per snap, too. I'm pretty sure I don't like that.
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#13It seems like on recent Ubuntu installations some packages are provided by snaps (ie. "apt install XXX" will install a snap). I'd be interested in disabling this behaviour, if anyone knows.
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#14Does Canonical have any 'push' motive for reducing dependence on apt? Or do they really just like snaps?
Snaps (and Flatpak) are the app store pipe dream all over again, about 11.. 12? years too late. If anything treat them as early indicators of the future financials of these distros, if attempting this all over again is central to their future business model. Snap to me is synonymous with desperate.
While I don't like the tech, the real reason Snap pushes me away from Ubuntu is the fear of this future where the app store dream turned out to be a failure again. What happens to the distro then?
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#15Kudos to the OP, I'm glad this got posted on hacker news because Snap is so ridiculously broken. Since 16.04, Snaps have been a huge pain for me with running LXC in production environments. By default, Snap applies updates and restarts Systemd services anytime it likes, and there's no way to turn this behavior off! The only way to get around it is to download the Snap package binary and install that directly. Then Sn…
Ugh, is it still impossible to disable Snap autoupdates?
Even if people should be updating regularly, forcing them feels completely antithetical to the Linux ethos of users having control over their devices.
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they just realized it gives them a way to package proprietary apps like Skype, Spotify, and Slack a bit more simply than would be required to apt-ify/dpkg-ify them. I really think that's the primary motivation.
And it's a pretty good one since the experience with having a large catalog of useful software in Flatpaks has been awesome and largely seamless. I just wish Canonical wasn't off doing their own thing or had started out in the open from the start so it would have a chance of being a useful standard instead of the weird Canonical store.
The number one reason why I don't like snap is: it puts Canonical in control.
Only Canonical can run a store. Once you install something, Canonical decides, when packages on your computers will upgrade. Wrt control, it goes way beyond Apple store/Google Play/Microsoft Store.
No thanks. Flatpak can preserve the benefits of decentralized repositories and upgrade under user control, with all the ease of packaging and sandboxing of the new toys.
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#17If gnome-3-34-1804 and
gtk-common-themes are a snap, what happens when we remove them? I expect to be able to install them using apt but I went to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/focal/ and I couldn't find them. So "a snap-free Ubuntu" seems to be a really a different kind of Ubuntu. (Unless there are also other versions of Gnome in 20.04.)
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they just realized it gives them a way to package proprietary apps like Skype, Spotify, and Slack a bit more simply than would be required to apt-ify/dpkg-ify them. I really think that's the primary motivation.
And it's a pretty good one since the experience with having a large catalog of useful software in Flatpaks has been awesome and largely seamless. I just wish Canonical wasn't off doing their own thing or had started out in the open from the start so it would have a chance of being a useful standard instead of the weird Canonical store.
I can never figure out Canonical's logic with going off to do their own thing. They don't do it with everything, so clearly it's not a complete rejection of things not made in-house.
It seems like they also often end up going back to the community solutions/standards eventually, so what benefit do they see in doing this over and over again?
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#19Does Canonical have any 'push' motive for reducing dependence on apt? Or do they really just like snaps?
I think they just realized it gives them a way to package proprietary apps like Skype, Spotify, and Slack a bit more simply than would be required to apt-ify/dpkg-ify them. I really think that's the primary motivation.
I like the way arch does it. They have AUR and everything is there and they can just say they don’t support it.
Re: Disabling Snaps in Ubuntu 20.04
#20It seems like on recent Ubuntu installations some packages are provided by snaps (ie. "apt install XXX" will install a snap). I'd be interested in disabling this behaviour, if anyone knows.
That would be really bad. I used Ubuntu for the past 15 years or so, but that would make me switch to a different distro.
So shortly after the Mir fiasco, why does Canonical feel it necessary to come up with the next dumb idea?