[kwlug-disc] Ubuntu LTS future

Jason Eckert jason.eckert at gmail.com
Sat Jun 27 10:07:31 EDT 2020


I'll echo everything in this thread - the first thing I do after installing
Ubuntu now is remove snap.
On a related note, Flatpak doesn't suck IMO.

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 9:42 AM Doug Moen <doug at moens.org> wrote:

> Just to expand on one point about Snap, the only 3D modelling tool that
> worked flawlessly on my system (using Snap) was Blender, and that's because
> Blender has sandboxing turned off. Canonical will normally not allow snaps
> with sandboxing disabled in their store, but Blender was able to negotiate
> special permission. I doubt I have the political clout to negotiate the
> same deal with Canonical, to get a non-sandboxed version of Curv into the
> Snap store. I do have the same technical requirements as Blender, however.
>
> Flatpak is basically like Snap, but it is open source, and software
> vendors can run their own flatpak server and have a direct relationship
> with their users, without Canonical or Red Hat forcibly interposing
> themselves as intermediaries.
>
> Doug Moen.
>
> On Sat, Jun 27, 2020, at 1:08 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> >
> > Wow. I did not realize that the Snap ecosystem was not FLOSS. This has
> > opened my eyes.
> >
> > So it seems that you can make your own snaps using free software?
> > https://github.com/snapcore/snapcraft
> >
> > so the locked down part is the server. I wonder if there is a
> > competing project to make FLOSS snap repos?
> >
> > Also, it looks like snaps come with a luscious dollop of surveillance:
> >
> > > Make data-driven decisions with active install metrics. Watch as
> > > automatic updates migrate users to your latest release. Understand
> > > your audience with geographic and version breakdowns.
> >
> > (from https://snapcraft.io/)
> >
> > The other approach that comes to mind here is NixOS. Maybe that is the
> > answer to the bleeding-edge vs LTS issue?
> >
> > - Paul
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 08:31:47PM +0000, Doug Moen wrote:
> > >
> > > Partly it's because the snap system is not open source. It is
> proprietary and locked down. There is only one snap store, controlled by
> Canonical. You can't distribute snaps to other users without Canonical's
> permission, since nobody else can create a snap server. You can copy snap
> files around but then there is no update mechanism. Same problem as Apple's
> iOS app store (which is one reason I refuse to own an iOS device). Snap is
> part of a long term vision to gradually evolve Ubuntu into a more
> locked-down, proprietary system like iOS. I'm getting out now, rather than
> living with a degraded experience and watching it slowly get worse with
> successive future releases. Same reason I'm switching my laptop from Mac to
> Linux.
> > >
> > > Others have noted that you have no control over when snaps upgrade,
> and you can't roll back an upgrade that breaks your system.
> > >
> >
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