Snap and the future of Discover Software Center

[Alyana]

Hi everyone,

I have recently read Fedora is about to 'disable' snap in their Gnome Software application, and in these articles it is mentioned that Canonical seems to be working on a snap-only store app (https://lwn.net/Articles/793874/ and https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/07/...plugin-removal).

Does this mean that in the future 'normal' applications (no snap) might be removed by Canonical and changed into snap only, or will that snap-only store be just an addition for all the snap based applications?

And if Canonical is going for that, what will be the impact on flavors like Kubuntu and the Discover Software Center? Will I still be able to avoid snap in the future when using Kubuntu when installing new software? Being forced into snap isn't something I would like to see in Kubuntu.

Thanks for any comment or information

[verndog]

If Canonical goes all Snap then I go elsewhere. I hate Snap. First purged item.

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, I just purged snaps too. And detailed the main reasons I hated them.

As to Discover, I also had something to declare :·)

[jglen490]

Don't need Snaps ...

[claydoh]

Hi everyone,

I have recently read Fedora is about to 'disable' snap in their Gnome Software application, and in these articles it is mentioned that Canonical seems to be working on a snap-only store app (https://lwn.net/Articles/793874/ and https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/07/...plugin-removal).

Does this mean that in the future 'normal' applications (no snap) might be removed by Canonical and changed into snap only, or will that snap-only store be just an addition for all the snap based applications?

And if Canonical is going for that, what will be the impact on flavors like Kubuntu and the Discover Software Center? Will I still be able to avoid snap in the future when using Kubuntu when installing new software? Being forced into snap isn't something I would like to see in Kubuntu.

Thanks for any comment or information

Welcome to Kubuntuforums!

Interesting first post

I don't think there is much to worry about snaps taking over, or flatpaks for that matter.
If Ubuntu did move to a snap-only infrastructure for some reason (an old rumor, really), then of course all the Flavours would have to take part.

In my opinion, the whole thing is a bit political, and as usual;, gets a bit overblown, then overblown a lot, then it gets more overblown. This is one of the downsides of the openness of our little world here.
Fedora is connected to Red Hat, so there has been a fair bit of anti-Canonical sentiment (ie they are the competition) so I am quite sure there is some ideology/emotion involved
FWIW Fedora doesn't include things that are not free, so they don't enable snaps or flatpacks, as these both offer non-free things in their stores. I have no clue how fedora users deal with things like Nvidia drivers.,
I do find it interesting that the Loud Voices Of The Internet cry whenever Canonical/Ubuntu do something, but usually only whimper when Redhat (via Gnome) push a thing, or remove a thing, or don't listen to the Community.


And if these things bother someone, then they can either remove it, or go elsewhere. Which is perfectly fine, acceptable, and Ok.

[PhysicistSarah]

I'm running into some issues where I need to access drives other than the system drive and for whatever reason I get access denied errors.

Not very convenient.

[jglen490]

Check the permissions, in a konsole, at the mount point. Or if the drive(s) are mounted from fstab, check mounting parameters.

[mbohets]

What is all the fuss about snaps and flatpack, can someone explain why they are so bad as some people state in above messages.
The thing I use them for is because they offer more recent software versions than the ones in the normal repositories.
For example in the normal repositories, the musescore software version is plain ancient, while the snap version is the latest existing version, which has plenty of extra very usefull features.

[Don B. Cilly]

Well, those main reasons I hated them I detailed, I mean, do you really find them acceptable?

[WWDERW]

I have no clue how fedora users deal with things like Nvidia drivers.,

When I was running Fedora on production computers (I know, I know) to get the Nvidia driver working (which I had to do as the Nouveau driver which not up to snuff for a 3 monitor setup), I had to go through the CLI to get everything done once the individual driver was downloaded from Nvidia. Had to disable Nouveau and enable the Nvidia driver. Maybe 10-15 minutes, but I had to follow instructions the entire time to make sure that I was doing it right as I was used to how ubuntu based distros did it in previous explorations into the Linux world. As to snaps/flats, I much prefer binary archives or appimages for everything. Thankfully all my production software is either one or the other. Worst case scenario, a .run file. I'm just not a repo fan at all, doesn't matter if it's the traditional repo, or snaps/flats. If it's going to be isolated and portable, it needs to be all the way portable.

[sithlord48]

What is all the fuss about snaps and flatpack, can someone explain why they are so bad as some people state in above messages.
The thing I use them for is because they offer more recent software versions than the ones in the normal repositories.
For example in the normal repositories, the musescore software version is plain ancient, while the snap version is the latest existing version, which has plenty of extra very usefull features.

This video should answer most of your questions. https://youtu.be/7fPShv-8Z_4

[Alyana]

Welcome to Kubuntuforums!

Thank you

And thanks everyone for the replies. I agree that we will just have to wait and see. I was just curious if specific plans have already been communicated.

As long as snaps are an optional thing and can be removed, I am ok with them.

[jglen490]

And I'm O.K. with completely ignoring them

Been though something like it with (maybe) PCLinux OS, a long time ago where all software was installed to /opt, and every software package had their own libraries - really sucked.

[oshunluvr]

IMO, snaps or other forms of packaging are great in specific circumstances. Like a media suite that you want to be stable outside the distro you're running it on. Another case that seems sensible, maybe especially from a developer view, is to have a distro agnostic application that is always the same regardless of platform, like Etcher.

Containers are the direction many software things are moving in, but like all new ideas and technologies there are growing pains.

[jglen490]

I get that container technology is coming, and has its utility, it's a direction we are going where I work. Distro agnostic, the goal is understandable, but not necessary in every situation. In implementation, it is not less resource intensive, but if you have enough horsepower it doesn't matter. It's all a part of the "longer, lower, wider" mentality that came to fruition in the 1950s. It also tries hard to break "faster, bigger, cheaper - pick two".

I don't really like it, but that really doesn't matter - it won't stop rolling just for me.

Look, I get it, it's a part of the process that we call progress; that usually results in something that is not what we thought it was going to be. Surprise!