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

[Erik1984]

Isn't this also true for debian packages?

Certainly, but with the deb packages from the repos I don't expect any sandboxing.

So the snap situation is an improvement if we just consider sandboxing but could be even better. It would be awesome if the snap permission system became more fine grained regarding folders in home. Imagine a Downloads interface for example, that would be useful for browsers. There is a way now to disable home interface and give each snapped browser an individual downloads folder but Firefox and Chromium snap cannot share that folder afaik.

[irv]

I just watch this video and it refutes some of the comments being made here about snap packages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixWuE1hhZfw

[RabbitWho]

assuming:
1. I don't want snaps for a reason I am too dense to be talked out of
2. I will find any solution difficult

how do I avoid snaps when I upgrade from bionic (i got rid of the snaps, don't remember how)? Will I just finally go Linux Mint? Do all the Ubuntu flavours have snaps? Am I off topic?

It is possible.

What is difficult is that some apt calls will try to download a snap version instead.

To disable, you simply need to uninstall snapd and add it to an apt block list.

After you've blocked snapd, any attempt to install snaps from apt will fail.

Uninstall the snap-store, and then add third-party repositories of the applications that attempt to install snap, such as Chromium.

oh my god i am in awe of your lack of lazy

[Artim]

assuming:
1. I don't want snaps for a reason I am too dense to be talked out of
2. I will find any solution difficult

how do I avoid snaps when I upgrade from bionic (i got rid of the snaps, don't remember how)? Will I just finally go Linux Mint? Do all the Ubuntu flavours have snaps? Am I off topic?

Snaps are "the future," so they say. You can maybe forestall their intrusion for awhile by blocking them in Ubuntu (and it's flavors) and in the Ubuntu-based OSes like Mint, Linux Lite, ElementaryOS, Zorin, and dozens of others. But snaps will reach them all as well, and any distro that is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and above.

OR,

You could change to a non-Ubuntu-based distro that doesn't use snaps (at least not by default, as Ubuntu does). Snaps depends on systemd, so a good way to avoid it long-term is to use a systemd-free distro (Slackware, MX-Linux, antiX, or my favorite, PCLinuxOS).

[RabbitWho]

Cool, thanks. They would be grand if i had a TB of space but snaps are like tribbles, growing and growing, every time i make space for the it works for a few days and then they take up more space again until my computer suddenly doesn't boot unless in safe mode. I only have like 100gb, i can't have 40gb of fricken snaps and duplicates of snaps!

I'm so used to Ubuntu now I'm afraid if I use anything else it will mean relearning everything

[RabbitWho]

ufff, following instructions for blocking snapd broke everything, i can't install anything at all now. Isn't Ubuntu for everyone? even those who aren't computer savvy? but I can't use snaps, they make copies of themselves to the point where my computer won't turn on, and when I try to do something about that I break everything. I wish we could choose whether we want them or not by clicking a box on installation. this is way too advanced for me

[Erik1984]

I do not understand why people bother with removing the snap system, especially if they claim to be lazy. The proper lazy solution is to do nothing. If you don't install any snaps manually there won't be many snaps on your system (maybe Chromium if you had that installed before 20.04 as deb), so the space argument is moot.

[RabbitWho]

so if i don't use the "software" thing I'll never have to worry about snaps? Just keep using sudo apt and finding debs online, then I won't have any snaps?

[ajgreeny]

If you really must do so you can always either compile chromium yourself, or search for the PPA which does exist, but there are risks to using it so only do so if you're aware of those potential risks.

I have to admit that I'm trying it at the moment with no problems and it has overcome the problems I had using the snap version which could not see nor use several of the folders in my home which I use for various file types; from memory only Downloads was usable, not even any subfolders of Downloads. That seems just a ridiculous and unnecessary restriction to me.
https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+...u/chromium-dev

[RabbitWho]

ufff i forgot how many problems snaps caused the last time I upgraded and now it's all coming back to me, my / is already full up and i can't do anything, can't even remove programs or snaps, because i can't write anything to the disk because / is full up, i'm going to have to do another clean install, the third today, i don't see how to fix this otherwise