Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#1

Post by sm4rk0 » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 9:42 AM UTC

Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu
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Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#2

Post by sm4rk0 » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 9:46 AM UTC

> Canonical and Mozilla are working together to make the firefox snap the only supported package in Ubuntu, thus deprecating the deb package in the archive.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/19620...

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#3

Post by jjgreen » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 9:51 AM UTC

Euch, so what happens in Mint/Ubuntu which has so-far avoided this snap nastiness?

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#4

Post by nicolaslem » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 9:59 AM UTC

For me the best way to run Firefox on Debian based system is to download the compiled tar and extract it somewhere in my home dir. This way I get update through Firefox itself (like on Windows/MacOS).

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#5

Post by lioeters » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:21 AM UTC

> ..The snap version of Firefox currently suffers from several problems that can lead to a bad user experience, including crashes.

Their recommendation is to backup everything (bookmarks, settings), remove the snap, and install via apt or self-contained zip.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#6

Post by pabs3 » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:23 AM UTC

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

For me the best way to run Firefox on Debian based system is to download the compiled tar and extract it somewhere in my home dir. This way I get update through Firefox itself (like on Windows/MacOS).

If you are downloading the tarball from Mozilla, then you are affected by this telemetry:

https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-...

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#7

Post by rohanrd-xyz » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

nicolaslem wrote: post #4

For me the best way to run Firefox on Debian based system is to download the compiled tar and extract it somewhere in my home dir. This way I get update through Firefox itself (like on Windows/MacOS).

Yeah it can. The only problem is my home directory is not on SSD and it takes long time to load Firefox from regular HDD.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#8

Post by New_California » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:31 AM UTC

Very bad, snap is crap.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#9

Post by ale42 » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

... on our systems we removed snapd on purpose, because we only have problems with it (we have NFS-mounted homes, and many snap packages don't work in this configuration)... now Firefox on snap doesn't sound good for us.

Re: Firefox now only available via snap on Ubuntu

#10

Post by tannhaeuser » Wed, Mar 23, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

I'll be the first one to moan that browsers have become way too complex beasts. What's left of the idea that a browser is a (moderately complex) commodity item to view docs on the web bundled with your O/S of choice? Now we must update our browsers more frequently than the fscking web pages.

I understand why they do it - as browsers have become kitchen sinks, their API surface has become enormous. But at the same time, the stuff you actually want to read on the web is really getting few and far between, making constant x GiB browser updates uneconomical from an information theory standpoint, so to speak. Especially with FF updates in the habit to require restarts (why?) at the worst possible points in time for me.