Snaps or Flatpak?

[jpenguin]

Which do you prefer? I like that snaps can be used on servers, while flatpak is desktop oriented. I don't like snaps ties to canonical or the fact that it's difficult to install in non *buntu distributions.

https://thenewstack.io/canonicals-sn...good-bad-ugly/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/0...desktop_linux/

[oshunluvr]

I've played with both once or twice. I liked flatpak but the install and launch procedure needs work if it's going to be used for desktop software.

[dequire]

Don't forget about Appimage as well. There are definite pro's and con's to each, but I do feel Snaps represent the future for complex software delivery. For example, Steam is coming to come to Linux via a simple Snap install. The article states they considered Flatpak, but apparently complex subsystems (like video driver management) is easier with Snaps.

https://plus.google.com/+Solus-Proje...ts/ZL8C2wBqbfg

Once the various software centers support Snaps, where software comes from and in what binary format should be seamless to the average user. Just the way it should be IMHO.
Image already added

[jpenguin]

^That is one small distribution, not like it's from Valve. Steam is available on flatpak https://flathub.org/apps.html

I actually do like some things about snap better, but it is pretty *buntu specific. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...-Linux-Distros

[GreyGeek]

AppImage is my favorite.
Download an image and click (or double click depending on your settings) and it runs. Remove it? Delete the AppImage. Nothing to add to your system, nothing to mess up or get messed up. Snaps reminds me of UbuntuOne. You know how that turned out.

[jpenguin]

AppImages are great, they are the way MacOS did apps. There is no update mechanism though, and servers can't really use them either.
https://www.fossmint.com/flatpak-app...do-they-stack/

[Bings]

AppImages are great, they are the way MacOS did apps. There is no update mechanism though, and servers can't really use them either.
https://www.fossmint.com/flatpak-app...do-they-stack/

Way to update AppImages: https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageUpdate

As a desktop user, AppImages are my favourite for the reasons GreyGeek stated. Snap leaves a load of "loop devices", that still remain even after an install and will not delete. Not a fan of anything that litters the system really. Flatpak worked ok but the commands if I remember were a little unintuitive. Weren't using sensible names, bit like com.program.somethingelse.

Ubuntu seem to have these half thought out ideas and then back pedal on them completely. Doesn't seem like a track record that is going to make everyone adopt something they've done as a standard, if they might just give up on it next week.

[vinnywright]

Snap leaves a load of "loop devices", that still remain even after an install and will not delete. Not a fan of anything that litters the system really.

ya ,,I'm no fan of snaps ,,,but you can unmount all the loop devices ,,,,+ snap installs a hole linux file-system under root ,,,that all the loop devices map to ,,,,,talk about litter... I talk about it in one of the falcon threads.

I do have an appimage or 2 laying around ,,,that work fine and are self contained.

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

...

Ubuntu seem to have these half thought out ideas and then back pedal on them completely. Doesn't seem like a track record that is going to make everyone adopt something they've done as a standard, if they might just give up on it next week.

Like UbuntuOne. I had purchased cloud space for my backups but after about a year of so they pulled the plug. It was neat just dragging files and packages from where-ever to the UbuntoOne subdirectory and have them automatically move up to the cloud.
I guess not many went beyond the free service.

[kubicle]

The rule of thumb is that if you have a choice between things that are developed by Canonical and things that are not, always go with a choice that is not.

Everything that comes from Canonical is badly designed and badly implemented, without known exceptions.