Yes, if you have gnome-software-plugin-snap installed
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Great! Thanks.
But it does make me wonder, whatâs the advantage of the snap Software Center then? Seems like the deb version can do all the things the Snap version can and more.
This really wasnât mentioned at all in the OMGUbuntu article, but snap packages are automatically updated which is great for a release like the LTS that will be around for many years. And installed Snap packages normally checks for updates several times a day and then installs it automatically.
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As @madsrh says, it allows the team to iterate fast, deliver new features and fixes faster than revving the deb in the archive.
A secondary benefit, is that users of older releases such as 18.04 and 16.04 can install it, and get all the benefits of the new releases.
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Can I turn off the automatic updates? I have a limited connection and I really hate it when snap does this. Iâd also like to install updates when I want to so this is very important for me.
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I made a video about this very subject just a couple of days ago. It covers delaying / deferring updates, and even configuring putting updates on hold when youâre on a limited connection. Should answer all your questions. if not, feel free to come back and ask.
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Would those âdefaultâ snap apps still be available in the repos as debs, or are you taking them off the repos?
I love that feature, for example I use Firefox beta snap, I donât have do anything to it as it gets updated in the background for me and I will have the latest beta on my system. Very handy.
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Would these be accessible via the new Snap Ubuntu Software store?
This one raised new questions for me (perhaps this is off-topic, could move this post to the snapcraft forum?)
- How does one know if a snapshot is ârestoredâ or not? Does there need to be a new column under
snap savedheaded âStatusâ and with values âarchivedâ and ârestoredâ? - Iâm assuming the hold on metered connection still only holds updates for two months (or some other limited time) before using the metered connection anyway? Allowing it to hold indefinitely is handy from a user perspective but does allow people to basically turn off automatic refreshes (by telling NetworkManager that the connection is metred and telling snappy to hold off on metered), I assume also that itâs still the case that a refresh will happen outside of schedule if the system is off or the update is held too many times in the specified schedule. Is this also the case for inhibiting a refresh when an app is running? Will snapd eventually refresh the snap anyway if one had that application open for months? Additionally, it would nice to have all these options in Software & Updates.
Also
That source dropdown in the top-right, is Ubuntu Software finally grouping the same app in different formats (Deb, snap, Flatpak (the latter when the plugin is installed)) on the same page?! 
Switching off updates completely is not something thatâs currently on the roadmap. However there are ways to work around it. If you snap revert (snapname) it will go back to the previous release, and wonât be updated. In addition, if you snap download (snapname) and snap install (snapname) --dangerous youâre opting out of updates for that snap too. If youâre creative, yes, there are ways to avoid auto updates.
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So far in my test yes, it seems like Apps are being grouped into, where you an choose Snap or Ubuntu repos. Not sure about Flatpak, I should try it out.
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@popey Iâm sorry but honestly this deferring thing sounds too much like Windows 10. I want no auto updates, period. Even Android and iOS allow that via a simple settings toggle, why canât snap?
I donât completely understand why people compare this to Windows 10 as if thatâs a bad thing. If you have any kind of history in the computing industry (or indeed didnât live under a rock over the Windows 95 through Windows 7 era) youâd recall how users didnât update their systems, and thus missed out on security updates. The platform was rampant with virulent malware. Having a system which encourages people to stay up-to-date is a good thing.
Why no toggle? Because we want to ensure people are up to date, that thereâs no machines out there running outdated and insecure software. Sure, we could put a big fat switch in there which turns off updates, and that would please you and a few other users.
Meanwhile what we have seen happen is bloggers write articles listing â10 things to do after installing Ubuntuâ and one would be âTurn off updatesâ, âJust click this buttonâ. Users will blindly copy and paste the instructions, turn off updates, and thus be less secure. This is not hypothetical, it happens. They donât understand the implications of their actions. There are millions more of those people than there are of you. We try to cater to the widest possible audience we can, so we try and do the best for the majority, which is, automatic updates, not easily turned off.
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Alright, I do want auto updates.
This discussion is pointless. It is not what you want or what I want. Itâs about what makes sense for the most people. Now please stop to stress your opinion like it would matter more than anyoneâs else opinion.
Itâs better not to have auto updates. Itâs good to know whatâs getting updated and why.
People talk about security updates, without exactly explaining what they might be. What might be the problem with security on such a little app like the Gnome Calculator, for example?
Of course itâs a good point, for a lot of users that do not care about this forum or Ubuntuâs dev in general â e.g. my wife ! 
â to have auto updates.
BUT :
- I sometimes use a hot spot with slow wifi rate and I donât want to wait some dozens of minutes that snapd updates all his children ;
- it may be a good point to know what apps are updated (because bugs happen in new versions too â arenât they ? â and it could be smart to advertise updates) ;
- the underground question is whether snap apps do propose two versions LTS-security-stability or not, like Firefox ESR does e.g. ;
- @popey : I can imagine itâs possible to have a block-updates-by-session switch, which turns ON again when a new session is started, avoiding ever-blocked updates.
I havenât followed the full discussion. But if what I quoted is true, please, no. I am using Ubuntu because auto update broke Windows 10 on this machine. Please do make auto update off by default. No matter core OS or software installed.
I want them, but let me choose. A list as we have now, tick or untick them individually before going for install.
⊠in your opinion. The vast majority of people do not believe this.
Youâre conflating things. GNOME Calculator was put on the ISO as a snap to help us test the whole âseeding snapsâ process, not because it was a fast-moving, CVE-prone applications. Chromium, Firefox and LibreOffice fall more into that category. They are updated often, and sometimes have security issues which need delivering to users quickly.
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As previously mentioned, by default snapd detects when users are on slow or metered connections. if it doesnât, you can force snapd to think it is, by setting this (bottom) tickbox in Network Manager.
For some users, yes, and again, not all users think like this. It really is beneficial to get your brain outside your own head and consider how other people think sometimes. Most âNormalâ users do not care what was updated, what version number something is, which libraries are used. They just want the latest version of the software, which works. If something breaks, they expect the developer to fix it and a new update to come along. Theyâre not remotely interested in these details because the computer is a black box which they use to do a job. Version numbers are meaningless to them, and only people like us care about them.
There are way more of them than there are of us.
It is possible for a developer to publish two versions of a snap in the store. See for example the Skype snap. It has both a stable and an âinsidersâ build available. Users can switch between them. Many other snaps do the same thing. Firefox could do the same with ESR.
You can certainly imagine all kinds of things. Indeed it is possible to defer updates to later, if you want, for example this will defer until tomorrow.
sudo snap set system refresh.hold="$(date --date=tomorrow +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z)"
Currently we donât have a GUI to present that in a friendly way, but that could be made, I think.
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