Snaps, Flatpak's, and Hard Drive Space

[Rubi1200]

I have Bodhi Linux on an old Intel Atom 1GB netbook.

Runs very smoothly for me.

[grahammechanical]

and here I thought Ubuntu was for the people. I guess Canonical is just another faceless cooperation. It surely has changed since then

Here we go. It is now political.

I remember the years, and you must also remember them, when Ubuntu could be installed from a CD-ROM. Then a DVD-ROM was needed. Now, the Ubuntu ISO would not fit on a DVD-ROM. This is nothing to do with Snap packaging.

Ubuntu is built on Debian and the Debian developers discarded Canonical's Upstart software for Redhat's SystemD software to start and stop Linux services. Many Debian developers were against SystemD because it would develop to take control of so much of the OS. And it has. Those developers forked Debian and begun to develop Devuan.

Then there is the part the Gnome organisation played when it dropped Gnome 2 for Gnome 3 desktop environment and the Gnome 3 shell. Initially, Ubuntu was to run a Canonical user interface on Gnome DE that was called Unity. There were a lot of complaints about that.

Mark Shuttleworth also received a lot of abuse because Canonical was not going to help develop display managers using the Wayland protocol. Ubuntu was going to use a Canonical display manager called Mir.

In the end Unity and Mir were dropped and we have Ubuntu + Gnome 3 DE + Gnome 3 shell + SystemD + a Wayland compositor. This is the reason why Ubuntu will no longer fit or run on a lower specification computer. Those days were long gone before snap packaging was introduced into Ubuntu.

You may be aware that the Ubuntu mini ISO no longer exists. Install the latest Ubuntu (24.04) and the user gets two options - Just the Essentials (DE + utilities + Firefox) 0r a Full installation (minus the games).

The issue that people will have with 10 year old machines is the video adapter not having enough video memory; not having more than 1 GB RAM; small hard drive; and possibly not having a USB port to install Ubuntu from.

I do not forget that whatever edition of Ubuntu I want to use I can download it for free (as in beer). It does not matter if I am a home user (I am such) or a corporate user. Canonical makes its money from selling services and mainly to corporate organisations.

I can even get an additional 5 years support for Ubuntu LTS for up to five machines. Corporate users have to pay for more than five machines.

I have done very well out of Canonical. They have my thanks.

Regards

[Perfect Storm]

Here we go. It is now political.

in the end is everything political to a degree. Our world is formed by it.

[Shibblet]

in the end is everything political to a degree. Our world is formed by it.

It's our fault too.

It's funny... everyone despises politicians. Just being involved in politics gives you a negative branding.
And yet, we keep electing them.

[werewulf75]

...I do not forget that whatever edition of Ubuntu I want to use I can download it for free (as in beer). It does not matter if I am a home user (I am such) or a corporate user. Canonical makes its money from selling services and mainly to corporate organisations.

I can even get an additional 5 years support for Ubuntu LTS for up to five machines. Corporate users have to pay for more than five machines.

I have done very well out of Canonical. They have my thanks.

Regards

+1

And they have my thanks too. Sometimes you could be forgiven for getting the impression that Canonical and Mark Shuttleworth are a lot of people's favourite abuse objects, instead of being appreciated for what they have done and keep on doing - innovating.

[werewulf75]

It's our fault too.

It's funny... everyone despises politicians. Just being involved in politics gives you a negative branding.
And yet, we keep electing them.

Because as a mass, as a species, humans are exceptionally stupid.

Never make the mistake of underestimating mankind's stupidity.

[1fallen]

Never make the mistake of underestimating mankind's stupidity.

Got the Tee Shirt, makes for some interesting conversations

[grahammechanical]

Someone once said: "I never vote. The government always gets in." How true.

Regards

[Shibblet]

Because as a mass, as a species, humans are exceptionally stupid.

Never make the mistake of underestimating mankind's stupidity.

[poorguy]

Snaps have gotten better with every release imo.

I use Lubuntu with Snaps which seem to work well.

Over time new Snap updates will use up hard drive space so the user must remove the previous Snap updates.

I found a script either here on the Ubuntu forums or perhaps I stumbled across it online but the script can be downloaded and ran and it does remove the previous Snap updates to free up hard drive space.

https://itsfoss.com/clean-snap-packages/

https://www.debugpoint.com/clean-up-snap/

May not be a problem for users with massive hard drives but I'm still using small drives.

Anyway my whole point is as a home user Snaps work based on my experience and I have no problem with containers.

In Puppy Linux we have SFS packages which is a container and I believe Antix Linux may also us SFS packages.

I look forward to the time when Ubuntu offers a 100% immutable distro with a desktop environment.

I also understand some user's complaints with Snap and other containers.

It's Christmas Eve so Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it.