Holy cow, even though the devs might already know, this thread needs the voice of a consumer that loves snaps because there are a lot of them. They just don’t go on forums saying they love snaps time after time, but rather just use them .
I love and use snaps all the time. I never had a crash so far, I always prefer them over deb packages (except for development related stuff like NodeJS npm etc.) and even wait if some app is not yet available as a snap package. All that just because I don’t want to add a PPA nor run a script to install some app, they (generally) don’t mess up with the rest of my system and are updated automatically. Plus for the first time, multiple major publishers are coming to a centralized store for Linux and it’s literally in better shape in terms of adoption and usability than Microsoft Store on Windows with their huge budget. This alone shows that with all its bugs and shortcomings, the need for something like this is immense.
It’s not hard to agree that Ubuntu Software’s search is not good and arguably sabotaging the success of snaps at bringing those major companies to the store. That in my opinion is much more constructive feedback. I also think the update mechanism for running snaps is flawed at the moment but that’s on the roadmap I guess. They probably know about the theming problems as well so what is left for us, the consumers are to just empathize and have some patience. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing . I love this community because everyone is so nice and assistive to each other (especially the developers) and that results in a positive outcome both for us and Canonical.
I would honestly suggest Ubuntu Software be rebranded as Snap Store everywhere even if it has deb packages just because it’s good branding that sticks lol.
Wow that’s so interesting. Are you referring to snaps that were made for Ubuntu Touch? Because I can swear I saw people saying Canonical copied from flatpak instead of joining them to create the one package format
I always get kind of a chuckle out of computer holy wars. Windows vs. macOS. Internet Explorer vs. Firefox. Now it seems the latest holy war is debs vs. snaps.
As a new Linux user and regular end user, I don’t care much who wins. It does seem to me that snaps are better for the consumer. The developer can concentrate on making one really good version of his software, instead of perhaps dozens of debs to support many distros. At least that’s my understanding of it.
Exactly. It’s literally helping everyone. Letting me easily recommend an OS that will become a direct Windows & Mac competitor, and letting them focus on more important stuff. When Snaps are really on par with debs, some real cool stuff can happen. Firefox too by default could be packaged by Mozilla on Ubuntu which would probably help the devs vastly. I know some people would go crazy for that just because they love to do it but when you think about it, Mozilla (just like any company or organization) would want people to use the product they shipped and Canonical would have one less place to worry about security wise.
Of course, I’m not saying deb format should be phased out or something. No one says that. I use it all the time and would get frustrated myself if all the core OS apps like Calculator, Calendar became snaps. Luckily they changed Calculator back. No reason to switch the default GNOME/Ubuntu apps even for more security atm, so they probably won’t do it.
Edit: These are ofc my opinions, how much they should be used is debatable and shouldn’t be under this thread
Well, I was talking about out of the box Firefox snap but they are here and that’s great . ESR is great for companies but I desperately need a Developer edition channel there. Without that it’s just missing to me lol.
I have nothing against snaps(maybe they can be fully open sourced and have a simple way to disable auto updates). But what a really want is a software that works and the snap store(or Ubuntu Software, i don’t know what is the real name of the application, is a little confusing), at least for my experience is a broken piece of software. Mainly because of the search function is slow, inaccurate and buggy.
If i want to find a snap, is more easy go to the snapcraft site find the app and install from there, than use the store that comes pre-installed with the system. For the end user this is a terrible experience and for the developer that puts the software in the store too, because is difficult for the user find their app and install. Search is the key function of any store, and need improve a lot in Ubuntu.
@kenvandine has the ability to install deb been removed? I’ve tried with many applications that obviously have an associated deb package but the source dropdown is never shown in Snap Store:
Also @kenvandine despite the bug tracker saying there is a fix released for https://bugs.launchpad.net/snap-store-desktop/+bug/1867610 I’m still unable to install any deb file from any directory as of 3.31.1+git187.84b64e0b (11/10/20), which contradicts statements done above regarding the location of the deb file being relevant.
For some reason ubuntu-software was downgraded to 3.31.1+git187.84b64e0b on my Ubuntu 20.10 install. Among other things, it broke .deb installations and changed the name to Snap-Store.
I solved this by tracking the beta channel with snap instead of the stable.
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. I love this community because everyone is so nice and assistive to each other (especially the developers) and that results in a positive outcome both for us and Canonical.
. ESR is great for companies but I desperately need a Developer edition channel there. Without that it’s just missing to me lol.
