What's the rationale that Ubuntu now wants to install everything in a snap package?

[CatKiller]

I don't think that this is really a major concern for server or desktop. Space is cheap.


I think this is only really a problem for embedded which, I don't imagine Canonical is going to ship glibc as a snap anytime soon.

https://docs.ubuntu.com/core/en/

[Hwæt]

https://docs.ubuntu.com/core/en/

While that's a lot more than I thought, I don't think glibc itself is in a snap. At least, the one the system is using. From what I know, that doesn't seem possible.

[grahammechanical]

Ubuntu core does not have a desktop environment. A DE would have to be a snap to install on ubuntu core. An IoT device running one application would not need a full DE and may not have the RAM and CPU power anyway. Let us not forget that snap packages can include all the libraries needed. Here is a 2 year old post showing how to run the snap of Chromium on ubuntu core running in a VM.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/snaps...g-wayland/6424

A criticism of snap packaging is that it duplicates libraries. What if you like playing a game that has not been upgraded to the latest version of Linux or Ubuntu. Here are some retro games that have been made as snaps to show that the problem can be overcome when libraries are included in the snap package.

https://snapcraft.io/blog/retro-style-games-on-linux


https://linuxx.info/7-best-games-available-in-snap/

Regards

[mastablasta]

A criticism of snap packaging is that it duplicates libraries. What if you like playing a game that has not been upgraded to the latest version of Linux or Ubuntu.

this si the main reason that snaps got me excited. i play a lot of old (DOS, windows) games. and i found how simply repackaging the old games in snap would solve many issues. on linux i tried a quake4. while it still works, something should be removed or sometimes not used. this can be solved with snap. same goes for some other older applications that still do the work well and are not a security risk, but are no longer maintained or won't work on newer libraries.


in my windows days at the end of previous century i had a task to redesign and move an old book written in some ancient word processor. first mission was to open the file (you couldn't just import it as it was proprietary data file) . and windows has this backwards compatibility through libraries (that are added to the application). sure it makes them bulky but i was able to get the writer going and after some fiddling open a 20 year old file. then i had to copy the data to MS Word and then i was editing it and improving it. with some help a really nice and much improved product was made that went into printing and is still used to this day for teaching.
my point is sometimes or many times it is good if you can easily run old things in new OS. especially in business. until about 5 years ago we were still (on occasion) using 20+old data to help customers resolve their issues. we made many people happy as they were able to cheaply repair their beloved home appliances. i never really understood people's connection with the washing machine...

[RabbitWho]

What a great post! I have a friend who's an archivist with a town hall and he'd be delighted with that idea. Somehow keeping everything you will need to open the file, ever, with the file. That's the dream. Also, a friend's grandfather refuses to have any of the old appliances replaced because he associates them with his late wife. Emotionally he has located a little piece of her in every corner, nook, and cranny of the house, and not one thing can be changed for any reason. So you are doing a really beautiful thing repairing people's washing machines

[1clue]

These last few posts is exactly the sort of thing that would be fantastic for snaps and preservation of antique functionality. Not just games.

I can't count how many times I had to deal with a really old system that was getting flaky. It's running some sort of software that won't run on a modern system, and it's indispensable. Often you wind up installing a brand new software package that doesn't do the job the right way, hopefully before the old system goes belly up.

But if you could take that system and clone it into a VM (pick your antique CPU) or a snap on a VM, you could preserve that functionality. If the app wouldn't be secure today, then you could jail it to limit network access or whatever else needed to happen. A modern CPU is many times faster than the old one was, so it would be a small load on the new system even if it was full non-native emulation.

Snaps allow freezing the library list in a way that a whole VM can't. But if you have an old cpu and need to limit the new system so it runs old or even alien (non-native) code, a VM would take care of that part.

[kevdog]

I've done some more reading on snaps over at reddit, and it seems far and away the largest complaint about snaps is that snaps are only distributed from Ubuntu. There isn't an alternative Snap-store as there could be when using Flatpack. So basically in the end cannonical controls the distribution of snaps.

I've been thinking about this since many have brought up security concerns regarding this model, and the fact it tends to run counter to the "linux-mantra" of providing an open-source for product distribution. Linux Mint has stated they don't want to support the use of snaps and would be in favor of using flatpacks although I saw a story late last night of Ubuntu reaching out to Mint developers to see if they could somehow rectify the situation with this future decision.

It would seem at this time Ubuntu is kind of facing an uphill battle with their snap distribution model, many comparing their model to Microsoft's software store model. I'm sure there are many more issues I'm not aware of, but this is kind of turning out to be a very long turf war battle.

[EuclideanCoffee]

There is not a Linux mantra but a GNU obligation. Ubuntu tends to walk around GNU, and this isn't far off from expected behavior.

[VMC]

I read recently that Linuxmint will remove all snap files. Regarding Chromium, Mint will have a location to install it without snap.

[QIII]

Why should there be a GNU obligation?

Linus happened to use GNU tools when developing Linux, but that doesn't oblige Linux to GNU. Other way around, perhaps. Had there been no Linux, GNU would still be in the wilderness of obscurity searching for a Hurd.