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Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

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Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#241

I dumped Ubuntu over Snap. Maybe I’m just ignorant but it seems like allowing developers to push software updates without any review invites the same sorts of issues we’ve seen on npm, with very high risks for certain use cases. I don’t want that kind of relationship with my OS, forced updates are why I ditched Windows in the first place. Aside from the philosophical concerns I ran into a lot of glitches with various…

It could be worse. Software push is how browser distribute extensions. And they are ridden with spyware [0]. Pull by maintainers, deferred rollout, veto and rollback might what saves us yet.

[1] https://blocked.cdn.mozilla.net/

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#243
Users who like both can use both (Mint and Ubuntu any flavor). If you don't want to use Snaps in Ubuntu, you can just uninstall snapd (first thing I did). EOL.

Mint had already pretty-much committed to flatpak years ago, so this came as no surprise. Clem's said there'll be a way to install Chromium. Tempest in a dongle.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#244

While I'm not super up on these newfangled app distribution systems, I've had mostly negative experiences with both Snaps and Flatpaks. As someone that administrates a small handful of workstations and a server or two, I just don't get what these tools buy me. It seems that usually installing an application via one of these methods has negative externalities (e.g. some things not working out of box, like access to us…

> I just don't get what these tools buy me.

Nothing. They buy control over you for the distro publisher though.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#245
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're not an arch person (which is fine). I find arch refreshing. by the way, I like yad.

I used to be when I was younger. I used to spend days and weeks on this stuff and enjoyed it. But nowadays I have more important (and interesting) things to do (from my perspective).

Ditto, have downloaded sources from kernel.org and mirrors and predecessors probably hundreds of times, wrestled endlessly with xf86config, window manager configs, installed slackware, gentoo... it got old, real old.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#246
post #9

I can understand Canonical pushing for snaps. It's their product and they want it to succeed. That said I hate their dirty ways. I find it even morally wrong. How can "sudo apt install chromium-browser" not install the apt package but install instead a snap? How I, as a user and also as a professional, trust Ubuntu if when I use their package manager I'm being tricked? I don't use Windows for a reason, more than one…

Ubuntu keeps making the setup work to go from install to a clean and usable linux system more and more work.

I've got to disable global keybinds that shadow shortcuts for fucking readline and basic text editors.

Fix their broken themes to shut up warnings that will drown out logs of applications that couldn't care less about themes.

Fix XDG settings to remove turd directories in home directories that nobody on earth has ever used and applications ignore.

Search the three or four different places they put configuration to fix whatever new setting has screwed things up, whether that be to move the close window button back where it always should have stayed, remove hot corners, or something new.

And yes, remove snap so I have usable output from mount and similar.

Not to mention how broken their LTS and distro upgrade process is. I shouldn't need to edit files to upgrade distros, and it shouldn't break basic applications or drivers.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#247
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Simple: they decided that maintaining the chromium .deb takes too much effort, and that snap is making that easier. So they moves it to Snap. Their whole distribution is copied from Debian. Is it too much effort to just copy and distribute the upstream package, like they have been doing from the very start?

See the link in the sibling comment. They don't copy.

No, they've got to meddle and mess with every damn thing to create unnecessary headaches for users.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#248
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date

I didn't see anything about completely disabling automatic updates there. Closest I could find was: "After a refresh, the next refresh can be delayed by up to 60 days, after which a refresh will be performed regardless of the refresh.hold value."

There's a solution you're not seeing https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/how-to-completely-remove-sna...

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#249
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's where they care about usability over configurability. I don't know the Apple ecosystem, but adding a 3-second-delay to every opened app because of a questionable sandbox whose security benefits are hypothetical doesn't sounds like “caring about usability” at all… Appimage is a better solution than snap overall, and it solves your issue with having yo go through canonical, but the whole point of snap is forc…

>adding 3-second delay to every opened app But that's exactly like the Apple ecosystem![0] [0] https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2020/macos-catalina-slow-by-d...

Thanks for that link, this is just unbelievable!

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#250
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I really want is a really stable base OS that's managed totally separately from the individual packages I install. It's the experience one gets with MacOS + Homebrew and it's way better than an "... and the kitchen sink" distro that manages your kernel and basic interface-providing software with the same tool & process that installs and updates Super Tux. (yes I know there are ways to use another package manager…

The BSDs have that philosophy AFAIK.

Yes, the OS is separate from the rest and the experience much more streamlined than Linux... but it doesn’t support WiFi beyond 802.11n which is too slow for me. If BSD supported modern WiFi I’d have switched to it on my daily laptop long ago!
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