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Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

forum.snapcraft.io

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Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#141

Post by enriquto »

ddevault wrote: post #135
mesebrec wrote: post #65

Signal Snap Maintainer here, this is because of a DMCA takedown request from lawyers representing Signal. Canonical is currently working with them to clear things up. Canonical's communication to me was initially lacking due to issues in their process, the process has been amended and I'm back in the loop again.

Typical behavior from Signal. They have a track record of hostility that we as a community should really not be tolerating. I do not use Signal and I tell my friends not to, either. Play nice or don't play at all.

Problem is, I already moved my friends and family to Signal and removed Whatsapp from my phone. It was an uphill battle that I don't want to fight again. What do I do, now? As much as there's a lot of questionable stuff on Signal, that's nothing compared to whatsapp. Do you suggest a Signal alternative that is significantly better?

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#142

Post by nvrspyx »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #97
sschueller wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet another reason not to use Signal. The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Instead they send their legal team...

> The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Are we sure that Signal didn't contact the maintainer? I haven't seen any statements either way about that.

From galgalesh, the snap package maintainer, in the linked forum post:

> I was just linked to this thread from our issue tracker

> As a maintainer for this snap package, it’s mind-boggling to me that, even after almost two weeks, the store team did not contact me at all. I had to find this out myself from users reporting it on our bug tracker.

> After almost two weeks, the maintainer of the snap has not received any official communication about this, but @roadmr was able to provide this tiny sliver of info in a thread on this forum.

From the original comment of this particular thread, also from galgalesh:

> Snap Maintainer here, this is because of a DMCA takedown request from lawyers representing Signal. Canonical is currently working with them to clear things up.

> Canonical's communication to me was initially lacking due to issues in their process, the process has been amended and I'm back in the loop again.

Seems pretty clear that he was neither aware of it being taken down nor the reason, so I think it's safe to assume that Signal didn't contact the maintainer directly.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#143

Post by public_defender »

sarnowski wrote: post #13
mort96 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another perspective: Canonical's IoT offering, Ubuntu Core, is based around the idea that Canonical provides the base operating system, and you provide your software as a snap, uploaded to Canonical's snap store, and you push updates to your IoT product by pushing an updated snap to the store. That has always rubbed me the wrong way, but "Canonical will just delete the snap and not respond to questions about why" was…

And last time I checked, they refused to let you use your own signing keys. Means you do not get end to end trust for your own bits but need to rely on Canonical that they don’t screw up - with the obvious effect of strong vendor lock-in as I cannot sign and run my own bits.

This is the reason that Signal has given for not providing/allowing their client on f-droid (since all f-droid apks are signed by f-droid rather than the maintainer). I wouldn't be surprised if it were the issue here.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#144

Post by 411111111111111 »

nimbius wrote: post #114
sschueller wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet another reason not to use Signal. The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Instead they send their legal team...

Moxies always been fairly dictatorial about Signal. no third party clients, no decentralization. im not surprised to see a DMCA at all. So far Signal is a centralized encrypted messaging app that includes its own cryptocurrency and wallet no one asked for, shills me for donations every other release, and begs me to invite new users despite deprecating regular SMS message support. if youre a threat-actor the most male…

I thought moxie moved on from Signal? Is he still in the loop?

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#145

Post by bee_rider »

wiml wrote: post #130
bee_rider wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Firefox is a snap on Ubuntu (eventually I'll get around to switching to a better distro -- "it's a laptop," I said, "it'll be nice to have Ubuntu deal with everything for me," big mistake).

It's fairly straightforward to add a PPA containing a normally-packaged Firefox. But it's always a bad sign when you start having to fight against the distro maintainer's choices.

Yeah, I'm used to starting with a base install and building up, I just tried out Ubuntu because I'd switched from desktop to laptop, remembered the bad-old-days of getting laptops working, and figured it would be nice to have Ubuntu handle all that stuff. But now I spend as much time bumping up against their design as I used to spend hunting down wifi drivers 10 years ago or whatever.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#146

Post by Octabrain »

tapoxi wrote: post #12
martinmunk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they, technically, any different than APT repositories? Don't get me wrong. I hate Snap much more than the next guy, but the idea of keeping a repository so you can go look for, and discover, stuff that is supposedly also vetted by someone is nice. The issue is, when an app store is a monopoly and not standardized. APT repositories is, in my eyes, an example of "the good" type of app store.

Flatpak solves this problem, unlike Snap (but like APT) anyone can run a repository. There is Flathub as a nice default but it isn't official.

I always say that one of the problems in the Canonical's strategy with Snap is not to provide the backend allowing everyone to set their own "store". Then, Canonical would focus in the added value of their one, with things such as a payment processor, malware scanning, ci/cd integration, stats, etc making it appealing.

Flatpak allows this, but, in the other hand, despite I exclusively use Flatpak these days, I dislike the fact that is not focused in CLI apps but desktop ones instead.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#147

Post by chpatrick »

gort19 wrote: post #119
sschueller wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Still need a phone number - They refuse to post the app on f-droid (directly) - No 3rd party clients allowed on their servers. - Crypto thing they attempted - I don't trust Moxie, he rubs me the wrong way.

What do you recommend as an alternative?

matrix/element.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#148

Post by CoastalCoder »

nvrspyx wrote: post #142
CoastalCoder wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Are we sure that Signal didn't contact the maintainer? I haven't seen any statements either way about that.

From galgalesh, the snap package maintainer, in the linked forum post: > I was just linked to this thread from our issue tracker > As a maintainer for this snap package, it’s mind-boggling to me that, even after almost two weeks, the store team did not contact me at all. I had to find this out myself from users reporting it on our bug tracker. > After almost two weeks, the maintainer of the snap has not received any…

> Seems pretty clear that he was neither aware of it being taken down nor the reason, so I think it's safe to assume that Signal didn't contact the maintainer directly.

You could be right, but I think another possibility is that the maintainer did get contacted earlier by Signal, and just didn't mentally connect the dots between that and his Snap package being pulled.

Note that I don't know how realistic this is, I'm just trying to be fair in my assumptions.

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#149

Post by goodpoint »

enriquto wrote: post #141
ddevault wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical behavior from Signal. They have a track record of hostility that we as a community should really not be tolerating. I do not use Signal and I tell my friends not to, either. Play nice or don't play at all.

Problem is, I already moved my friends and family to Signal and removed Whatsapp from my phone. It was an uphill battle that I don't want to fight again. What do I do, now? As much as there's a lot of questionable stuff on Signal, that's nothing compared to whatsapp. Do you suggest a Signal alternative that is significantly better?

Support a new, well managed fork of Signal

Re: Snap Store administrators removed signal-desktop from Ubuntu Snap

#150

Post by freedomben »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #97
sschueller wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet another reason not to use Signal. The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Instead they send their legal team...

> The correct behavior would have been for signal to offer an official snap or to contact the maintainer. Are we sure that Signal didn't contact the maintainer? I haven't seen any statements either way about that.

Good thinking, but based on what GP said I don't think so:

> Canonical's communication to me was initially lacking due to issues in their process, the process has been amended and I'm back in the loop again.

Had they contacted the maintainer, then the maintainer would not have been wondering what the deal was.

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