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Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

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Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What distro? I use Ubuntu because I just want an OS, not a hobby.

Echoing others here: use Pop_OS or Manjaro. Pop_OS is really the best of Ubuntu, but with sane defaults that respect you. Manjaro just works, every time, every install I try.

Just wanted to chime in here and say Zorin is good too. It's based on Ubuntu 18.04 + Gnome + some extensions (which make it really beautiful to look at). It's fast and gets out of the way immediately when you want it to. But my laptop (ThinkPad X1 extreme) isn't charging anymore. That happened with other distros too (on MSI prestige). I can't figure out what the problem is.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#252
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Launch times and (silly, but it really bugged me) pollution of my `df` output drove me away.

Yup, the output of df became so cluttered that it became useless. So I created this alias: > alias df='df -x tmpfs -x squashfs -x devtmpfs'

Here's one that doesn't hide the snaps but but still keeps it not cluttered (relies on ripgrep) :

function df { OUTPUT=$(/usr/bin/df $@) snaps=$(echo ${OUTPUT} | rg "^.+/snap/(.+)/.+$" -r '$1' | tr '\n' ' ') printf "\x1b[33m\x1b[1mFILTERING SNAP MOUNTPOINTS:\x1b[0m\x1b[33m\n$snaps\x1b[0m\n\n" >&2 echo $OUTPUT | grep -v "/snap/" }

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#253
post #87
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, no. Manjaro is the no-nonsense "I really don't want to waste time troubleshooting my own shit" version of Arch Linux. I stopped using Arch when I found Manjaro and I'm so glad I did. Arch just requires way too much fiddling for it to ever feel "complete" and or finished.

The cost of Arch over anything else is 100% in the installation. After that, it IS Manjaro except you are using the real thing, not a derivative. I've had to trouble shoot Arch far less than any other distro I've ever used.

That’s a good case for using Manjaro.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#254
post #236
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh yeah, that's just Firefox in general, from a snap or a deb.

For a .deb you need to have chosen to run an update first

No, ubuntu includes it in unattended-upgrades for security reasons, and will still upgrade it without manually triggering the update.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#255

I personally don't packaging apps in a sandbox, its a violation of the basic idea of writing tools that do one thing well. Still, snap gets lots of flack, but I don't see the same for flatpak. Is there some advantage to flatpak that I am missing, or is it just than Ubuntu has pushed snaps too hard?

Yes, flatpak supports multiple upstream repositories, so anyone can release packages. I am going to start a repo soon for packaging AUR packages so they can be used on other distros.

Snaps are fully controlled by Ubuntu - for me it's a non-starter.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#256
post #78

I have found flatpaks to be much better (they are much faster to startup), except that flatpak doesn't have an unconfined or "classic" mode like snaps. THis is especially annoying if you wanted to install vscode to access the system compiler, python, etc.

I am planning to develop a solution to this VSCode issue soon - there are basically two ways to make it work:

1. Using platform or app flatpak extensions, one can plugin compilers and runtimes so they are available inside the sandbox.

2. One can add shims that launch programs outside the sandbox using flatpak-spawn --host.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#257

This appears to be an unpopular opinion, but I like snaps and Canonical's philosophy in some ways mimics that of Apple's where they care about usability over configurability. Snaps have been my preferred method of installation for a few years now. I really like how I know where the files are being installed to and if I uninstall the software it will be removed cleanly. I also like how for most software snaps contain…

> Canonical's philosophy in some ways mimics that of Apple's where they care about usability over configurability.

The philosophy they mirror is the "Walled Garden" and "complete control over user devices" though I'm not sure if even Apple is doing the latter. I don't see any practical reason for denying experienced user the choice. Snap may be technologically most advanced software distribution solution (it is not) but it benefits only those who control it, and in case of Snap, that is not you, the user, but Canonical.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#259
post #38

snap has problems that exist for years. It will upgrade a running application without telling the user. Then it will remount all folders in use by the running application in read only mode. As such, your chromium will start misbehaving, crashing, extensions will start failing, it won't save cookies or remember tabs after restart. DBeaver won't be saving your .sql scripts. Snap developers think users are precogs. That…

Snap support is evolving. There are keys to configure when, and if, you get updates, https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date The total Linux desktop installation base is around 2.7%. Without automation, the Linux desktop does not look like it will attract any significant number of Windows users.

It'll still update behind your back after 60 days. It's deliberately designed so that the users does not have complete control over what their devices run. It's designed in a way that even experienced sysadmins will have hard time taking back control of their devices. Ultimately these knobs are just farce. What they are doing could be easily achieved by cron or any other task scheduler, but that would not allow Canonical to keep control of user devices.

Re: Linux Mint Dumps Ubuntu Snap

#260
post #145
post #93

Snaps are a poor solution for the problem apt already solved years ago.

"apt" packages are handmade. And they depend on hand-made dependencies. It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain packages like chromium, because they have too many dependencies, that have to be packaged individually. The "universe" repository has tens of thousands of packages. Do you know that a majority of them are not maintained because it is too much effort and not many helping hands?

Do not pretend that "apt" (.deb) packages require un-bundling dependencies. That's just policy decision of Debian. You could just create Chrome package and put everything in /opt/google-chrome or whatever root path you choose. Ubuntu could have lifted this policy.
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