how do I ensure that I install a NON-Snap version of an application (Thunderbird)

[ajgreeny]

So can we assume that an external disk mounted in a folder in a user's home, either from fstab or by manual mounting, will never suffer the access problems that some users have suffered when using snap packages?

As I said, I have not used snaps so far except for chromium in the dev version of 20.04 so I ask this very much as a new snap user.

[pjstock]

/mnt/ and /media/ are for temporary mounts according to the Linux File System Hierarchy Standards:
.

can I force an update to version 20.04?

when I "check for Updates" in settings It comes back telling me that my 18.04.3 LTS is "Uptodate"

[CatKiller]

can I force an update to version 20.04?

when I "check for Updates" in settings It comes back telling me that my 18.04.3 LTS is "Uptodate"

20.04 won't be released until April 2020, hence the name. It won't be automatically offered as an upgrade to 18.04 users until the first point release.

[Dennis N]

So can we assume that an external disk mounted in a folder in a user's home, either from fstab or by manual mounting, will never suffer the access problems that some users have suffered when using snap packages? As I said, I have not used snaps so far except for chromium in the dev version of 20.04 so I ask this very much as a new snap user.

If you mount a partition somewhere in your home folder, I believe there's no problem. You can open & save under /media/<user> and /mnt - at least that works from Chromium and Firefox snaps*.

*Checked in 16.04 and 19.04. I suspect it will work in all releases. See additional comments in post #19 about accessing these locations.

[TheFu]

So can we assume that an external disk mounted in a folder in a user's home, either from fstab or by manual mounting, will never suffer the access problems that some users have suffered when using snap packages?

As I said, I have not used snaps so far except for chromium in the dev version of 20.04 so I ask this very much as a new snap user.

There are many reasons NOT to do this. Mainly for backup size management. It you do want to add storage to a HOME, I'd add it either for the entire /home/ or to /home/username if just 1 userid needs it. All or nothing to backup requirements are clearer.

Many smart people here also use symbolic links from their HOME to storage mounted elsewhere as a way to expand specific types of storage, while not screwing up backup sizes or versioning. For example, media files don't tend to change, but having them available from a HOME/videos is convenient. Especially for photos, music, and videos, this is very handy.

If following a symbolic link from ~/photos/ to other storage works, great! A confined web browser is something I'm fully behind, which is why using firejail has been normal here since 2016.

[mörgæs]

If you next time install one of the other Buntus than Ubuntu you will be free from snap by default.

[The Cog]

If you next time install one of the other Buntus than Ubuntu you will be free from snap by default.

Not necessarily. In Xubuntu 19.10, chromium-browser is only available as a snap.
I gather that's true for all variants, and it's the only way Chromium will be available on *buntu in the future.

[ajgreeny]

Not necessarily. In Xubuntu 19.10, chromium-browser is only available as a snap.
I gather that's true for all variants, and it's the only way Chromium will be available on *buntu in the future.

That is correct; Xubuntu 20.04 has chromium as a snap only, and as I mentioned earlier in the thread, even if you use synaptic (and probably also apt install) it will first install a small transitional package which itself then installs the snap version.

[Dennis N]

You can open & save under /media/<user> and /mnt - at least that works from Chromium and Firefox snaps*.

I should amend the previous post in regard to the above statement. The ability to access these locations was NOT due to some upgrade or improvement in the snaps - it occurred to me later that I had set permissions from within the browsers' web pages in Ubuntu Software. This is what allows the access to /mnt and /media/<username>. The two screenshots below show how: 1) click permissions button, and then 2) switch on "read/write files on removable devices". It's off by default.

Note: The command in post #3 will produce the same result, but setting switches on the browsers' web pages doesn't require the user to know about or find the special command to do this.

I left the "Access USB hardware directly" off for now.

[TheFu]

Anyone know if the snapd team's plans to support NFS was ever implemented? Have a bunch of NFS here and I can't find any media/mount-access confinement controls for snapd. Found a 12 month long thread about supporting NFS, but it just ended without any statement. Plus the NFS concern was for HOME directories, not other locations.