[kwlug-disc] Running multiple versions of Firefox on Linux

[Ron]

Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote on 2026-04-01 13:39:

> How does this solution allow me to control versions?

Info here:

Snap

snapcraft.io

Parallel installs <#>

Parallel installs enable you to run multiple instances of the same snap 
on the same system. Each instance is completely isolated from all other 
instances, including its name, configuration, interfa...

🔗 
https://snapcraft.io/docs/explanation/how-snaps-work/parallel-installs/ 
<https://snapcraft.io/docs/explanation/how-snaps-work/parallel-installs/>

I've got multiple versions of Node.js, for example. Been a while since I 
did it, so don't remember details, apologies on that.


The process for installing multiple instances of a snap is identical to 
installing a single snap except you /must/ provide a unique identifier, 
called an /instance key/, separated by an underscore (|_|) from the 
target snap name.

For example, the following command will install two instances of the 
hello-world <https://snapcraft.io/hello-world> snap with the second 
given an instance key of |foo|:

sudo snap install hello-world hello-world_foo


> My limited understanding of snaps is that they auto-upgrade?
They normally do but can be pinned to a version like any half-way decent 
packaging system.

Haven't touched them in quite a while, do not recall pinning them, and 
they haven't upgraded:
$ snap list node node_22 Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes node 
18.20.8 9971 18/stable iojs✓ classic node_22 22.14.0 9750 22/stable 
iojs✓ classic

Perhaps I installed a specific version instead of "latest" they skip 
auto-update?
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