Ubuntu 23.04 – 'Lunar Lobster'

61–62 of 62 posts

Re: Ubuntu 23.04 – 'Lunar Lobster'

#61

Post by bheadmaster » Mon, Apr 24, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

lproven wrote: post #60

bheadmaster wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snap server is non-free software. Without reverse engineering the protocol, it is impossible to host your own snap repository.

This is not true. Other companies have and do most their own snap stores.

According to this blogpost from 2020 [0], this AskUbuntu discussion [1], this random german blog [2] and many other search results of "canonical snap backend proprietary software", the snap backend is proprietary software. There is no official information from Canonical available (that I've managed to find), so I think we can reasonably assume all this correlating information is true.

According to this Ubuntu documentation [3], the "dedicated snap stores" are just Canonical-hosted snap stores with more granular control, which isn't equal to hosting your own snap store.

There is an open-source implementation of snap store [4] which (assuming it works and someone is using it) would fall under "reverse engineering the protocol" part of my post, because the guy who wrote it reverse engineered the protocol [5]. Assuming that it works, this is the only part of my post that is not completely accurate - it is technically possible to host your own snap server without reverse engineering the protocol yourself, but that's only because someone else already did it. But Canonical could change the protocol any time and render this implementation obsolete, as they've done in the past [6].

[0] https://hackaday.com/2020/06/24/whats-the-deal-with-snap-pac...

[1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/1383583/is-it-true-that-snap...

[2] https://merlijn.sebrechts.be/blog/2020-08-02-why-one-snap-st...

[3] https://ubuntu.com/core/docs/dedicated-snap-stores

[4] https://github.com/freetocompute/kebe

[5] https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/announcing-project-kebe-open-so...

[6] https://github.com/noise/snapstore

Re: Ubuntu 23.04 – 'Lunar Lobster'

#62

Post by lproven » Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 1:56 PM UTC

bheadmaster wrote: post #61

lproven wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. Other companies have and do most their own snap stores.

According to this blogpost from 2020 [0], this AskUbuntu discussion [1], this random german blog [2] and many other search results of "canonical snap backend proprietary software", the snap backend is proprietary software. There is no official information from Canonical available (that I've managed to find), so I think we can reasonably assume all this correlating information is true. According to this Ubuntu documen…

I see you edited this substantially, but outdated info remains outdated.

So, before, you said:

> Feel free to provide information that proves otherwise.

OK, then, I will.

Here's a story I researched and wrote myself about a 3rd party store:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/04/rudra_sarsawat_ubuntu...

Here's his announcement:

https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/lol-an-open-source-snap-server-...

I attended last year's Ubuntu Summit. There were multiple talks on Snap. Here's my report:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/09/canonical_conference/

One talk was by Viktor Petersson:

https://www.screenly.io/blog/author/vpetersson/

This is his company, Screenly:

https://www.screenly.io/

Screenly does autonomous remote managed digital signes, running Ubuntu Core.

As you probably know Core has no other packaging format than Snap:

https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/17/ubuntu_core_22/

So Screenly needs to distribute updates as Snaps, and in his talk, Petersson talked about the issues around that in some detail, including that Screenly runs & hosts its own private Snap store for this, and that it's built 100% from components in the Ubuntu repos.

I also talked to the developer of the Snap format, and the Ubuntu desktop lead, and they told me that they keep their store closed as a security measure, but it's perfectly possible to run your own.

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