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Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

jatan.blog

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Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#441

Post by Iolaum »

_lbaq wrote: post #355
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree entirely. Unavoidable updates were one of the key factors in my choice to avoid Windows 10 for business-critical computing. I standardized on Ubuntu instead, but this could be a deal-breaker for me. I hope Canonical fixes this immediately. I'm not eager to spend time re-researching to market for a suitable OS.

Just disable snapd after you have achieved your ideal configuration. But yes, this should be a setting somewhere...

The problem with that is you are fighting the platform. That's not a great place to be. Unless your disagreement with the platform's design is small enough you are likely to be better choosing a more appropriate platform.

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#442

Post by jplayer01 »

dima55 wrote: post #359
nromiun wrote: post #285

> Snap applications auto-update and that’s fine if Ubuntu wants to keep systems secure. But it can’t even be turned off manually. OMG. Is this real? This is the exact reason I use Linux instead of Windows 10 or macOS. I am not a grandma who can't stay up to date on tech news. At the least there should be a toggle for power users. But no, you can only defer it. Am I the only one who doesn't like it when your already s…

snaps are intended for non-power-users that don't want to deal with dependencies. Those users want things to mostly work without worrying about murky downsides. Auto-updating is exactly the right behavior. If this is of concern to you, why are you using snaps? And why Ubuntu? What's the value-add over Debian?

The concern is that there's no simple way to disable auto-updates. If you want Ubuntu to turn into Windows, why not just use Windows?

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#443

Post by ohazi »

lucb1e wrote: post #408
ChrisSD wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be aware that Testing may get security updates much later than Unstable or Stable. https://www.debian.org/security/faq#testing

Does that actually happen in practice though? And as for the severity, we're talking desktops so the most critical piece of software is the browser. Firefox is the only piece of software I download outside of the repositories to make sure the updates come directly from the source, but other than that, openssh very rarely has serious vulnerabilities, to attack Thunderbird you'd already need to mitm my traffic... it's…

The only guarantee that the Debian project makes is that the stable branch is the security team's main priority. In practice, I've found that unstable and testing usually get patches pretty quickly.

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#444

Post by donmcronald »

shock wrote: post #421

I am very diligent about applying updates as soon as I'm able and generally read the changelogs of the updates I'm applying in Ubuntu's Software Updater. One thing I will not do is willingly allow somebody else a way to deploy and execute code on my computer without my say so (which snap is). After reading the whole thread at https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for... and seeing Gustavo Niemeyer'…

If they make it automatic and unmanageable by default, they can sell those features back to us tomorrow as an enterprise edition or a private Snap store.

It’s the same thing MS did with Windows 10. You buy the product, but have to pay again if you want any semblance of control. Us normal users are now test subjects for the real customers. Look how non-enterprise Office 365 customers are on a monthly cadence for forced updates and the expensive plans get SAC or better.

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#445

Post by koheripbal »

input_sh wrote: post #313
koheripbal wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...dumb question: Does this apply to Ubuntu Server as well??? Because if so, I'm sticking with 18.04.

If you're running Ubuntu's server, odds are that you're SSH-ing into the box instead of running graphical interface. Unless you specifically install snaps, I don't see how this would affect you.

Perfect. So I guess that means APT is still the same, correct?

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#446

Post by D2187645 »

rlpb wrote: post #130
capableweb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My two cents, you don't have to agree but thought I'd just add a different perspective. I prefer my own package manager (pacman) over snaps for the following reasons: 1) I like to upgrade on my own schedule. I use my computer for work, and I cannot have things break in the middle of the day or in the morning, just as I get started with work. I usually save upgrades for when I less things to do, so that in case stuff…

> I like to upgrade on my own schedule. I use my computer for work, and I cannot have things break in the middle of the day or in the morning, just as I get started with work. You can arrange snapd to update on your preferred schedule. What you cannot do is defer updates forever.

Would iptables help block snap from reaching out?

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#448

Post by Izkata »

curt15 wrote: post #440
eloisant wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that the vendor can take care of the updates without having to go through all the package management system of all distributions

When you install Google Chrome for a deb, it's already set to update through Google's own apt repository. Presumably Firefox could do the same.

> Presumably Firefox could do the same.

At least when I encountered it a few years ago, if you go to Help -> About Firefox in the menu, it'll check for updates in the background, download the most recent version, and upgrade itself the next time you restarted the browser.

And yes, this was on Ubuntu.

So the capability is there, even if it's not on generally.

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#449

Post by qidydl »

shock wrote: post #421

I am very diligent about applying updates as soon as I'm able and generally read the changelogs of the updates I'm applying in Ubuntu's Software Updater. One thing I will not do is willingly allow somebody else a way to deploy and execute code on my computer without my say so (which snap is). After reading the whole thread at https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for... and seeing Gustavo Niemeyer'…

I'm surprised that something like routing software is/was being distributed via snap instead of as a Docker container; snap seems much more targeted towards end-user workstations than to servers.

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has snapped me off of it

#450

Post by shock »

donmcronald wrote: post #444
shock wrote: post #421

I am very diligent about applying updates as soon as I'm able and generally read the changelogs of the updates I'm applying in Ubuntu's Software Updater. One thing I will not do is willingly allow somebody else a way to deploy and execute code on my computer without my say so (which snap is). After reading the whole thread at https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for... and seeing Gustavo Niemeyer'…

If they make it automatic and unmanageable by default, they can sell those features back to us tomorrow as an enterprise edition or a private Snap store. It’s the same thing MS did with Windows 10. You buy the product, but have to pay again if you want any semblance of control. Us normal users are now test subjects for the real customers. Look how non-enterprise Office 365 customers are on a monthly cadence for force…

> If they make it automatic and unmanageable by default, they can sell those features back to us tomorrow as an enterprise edition or a private Snap store.

I'm not sure whether you're being ironic, but they're doing just that.

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