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Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

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Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#71

Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. What is going on with this?

Another issue with Snap is that it is locked to Canonical's closed source Snap Store server. Canonical can start fixing Snap by releasing the Snap Store server source code under a FOSS license and supporting multiple software sources in the Snap client. It makes no sense for the FOSS Linux ecosystem to regress to a system in which software is obtained from a single proprietary app store controlled by a single company.

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#72
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a very interesting thought, and one I haven’t come across. How did you come up with this so fast?

I read about it before.[1] There is also a BLAS library made by Nvidia that makes use of CUDA. This post is about how to hook it up to GNU Octave but it also works with R: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/drop-in-acceleration-gnu-o... What sibling says about compiling R on your work computer so that it can make full use of your CPU can help too. I am curious if that closes the performance gap for you. [1] https://cs…

I’ll give it a shot when I make it back to campus. I’m snowed in at home, but I’ll let you know soon. Also, this really does look like the issue. Thanks for the insightful comments.

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#73
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Steam specifically does quite a bit more complicated stuff that can affect the rest of the system just to support games than most other pieces of software. It has its own built-in update mechanism, which I think makes it one of the few pieces of software I'd avoid using the package manager for.

I run a `snap` command to update steam

I start/restart steam to update it.

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#74
post #27

Sigh , Ubuntu would be my Linux distro of choice if not for Snaps. Still hoping they'll drop them at some point like they dropped Unity and Mir. Debian has a lot of annoying defaults unfortunately so I always have to tweak it to suit my preferences. Still better than dealing with snaps though.

Same here. You forgot bzr and upstard in your list. https://ploum.net/2022-04-05-firefox-ubuntu.html

And not to forget the Amazon flavored Searchbar ;)

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#75
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps manjaro would be a better fit? Similar to arch but with a good instaler

I've been curious about that. Any time I ask about it, a lot of Arch folks come out to explain why Manjaro is terrible and makes all kinds of bad choices similar to the ones TFA is about. How much of that is real vs. overblown purism about Arch?

If you want Arch with a simple installer, use EndeavourOS.

Manjaro has a history of DDoSing the AUR, letting various website certs expire multiple times and holding back any package updates for two weeks (even security updates), but also shipping WIP github patches without notifying users properly.

https://manjarno.snorlax.sh/ https://dont-ship.it/

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#76
post #55

Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. What is going on with this?

> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Apparently this is fixed, though I think only on new snap package builds. Benchmarks are available that demonstrate that slow snap load times are no longer an issue (but the grapevine persists in saying that it is). > Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. Acknowledged and being fix…

> Apparently this is fixed

Thanks, good to know. I had this issue with Bitwarden. I'm testing it now and it seems to be much faster than some weeks ago so that's nice.

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#77
post #48

Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. What is going on with this?

> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Part of the design, snaps are a compressed disk image that has to be decompressed the first time it's started after a reboot.

Parent commenter here. Actually, as someone above answered in the thread above, the slow Snap startup seems to be fixed.

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#78

As a computational biologist, I've been struggling with performance issues on Ubuntu for months, which have made it difficult to work efficiently. Despite Ubuntu's popularity in academia, R runs much slower on Ubuntu than on my personal computer running Arch. This has forced me to do my work at home, where I have better performance. It's disappointing that Ubuntu's limitations are often assumed to be universal to Lin…

Is it maybe that the default R binary on Ubuntu hasn't been optimized? Have you tried building R from source on Ubuntu?

I've personally tried building the software I need for source before, but getting all the BLAS/LAPACK and MPI libraries with it has been annoying and time consuming. Your supercomputer cluster may offer pre-built optimized binaries for your CPU. For mine, I've been using prebuilt software offered by compute canada over CVMFS[1]. I assume something similar is available for wherever you get your supercomputing resources from.

1. https://docs.alliancecan.ca/wiki/Accessing_CVMFS

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#79
post #57

Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. What is going on with this?

> What are the blocking points? * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores). * Applications installed as snaps are slow to start up because they are always stored in compressed form and must be decompressed to run. I don't und…

> * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores).

This is no longer true. You can disable updates for a snap indefinitely:

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

Re: Ubuntu Flavors Agree to Stop Using Flatpak

#80
post #6

A few days ago I wanted to update an Ubuntu laptop that hasn't been turned on for over a year. I had steam and brave browser installed using snap. Updating these two took as much time as updating everything else in the system (1.6Gb of downloads). Then I uninstalled brave, which took about 6-8 minutes. The laptop has NixOS today. NixOS has official GUI installer now https://nixos.org/download.html#nixos-iso

Yeah updating flatpaks on the Steam Deck takes ages, and because of the way the SteamOS is set up - you really are incentivized to use flatpaks over actual packages (which could break with updates).

which kind of packs takes ages. I don't have this issue. There is no could break with updates. It is they will be wiped by an update. Install packages with distrobox.
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