I think one of the biggest problems with Snaps is that anyone can make one and have it published on the store. To the end user, especially one familiar with the packages in the Ubuntu archive, this implies a well maintained and well supported piece of software. In reality, this is not the case.
No Snap goes through the rigorous process packages in the archive go through. Concerns about malware there are all but unfounded (even the xz fiasco failed to have any impact on production packages) and, at least with the latest version of Ubuntu, one can always expect the latest software (at least given potential delays due to cycle times). Important metadata is practically required by the packaging guidelines, to boot. Most importantly, there are very clear paths to get support and a virtual guarantee of getting it, even as people come and go.
There’s a lot of one off Snaps by one off publishers that have simply disappeared for whatever reason. To confront this and keep Snaps from coming abandonware, there really needs to be some sort of a solution. Maybe some sort of minimum gap between upstream version?
What’s worse, though, is when I see what amounts to abandonware and it’s not from some fly by night publisher. In the case of GNOME Drawing (which apparently is a literal non-starter), this one done Ken VanDine, who not only hasn’t come and gone, but who actually works for Canonical.
If Canonical themselves cannot maintain their own Snaps, how can we expect a lone publisher to? And if we can’t expect either, why are we even bothering with Snaps at all?
I’ll be honest: I don’t totally love Snaps. However, as Canonical has made it a platform expectation for Ubuntu and all of its flavors to support them, I have tried very hard to do exactly that. I don’t try to convince people to ditch the Firefox Snap in lieu of alternative sources (even though I field a fair amount of requests that way). I’ve even gone so far as to encourage people to use Snaps and defended their merit.
I guess my point is I’m bringing this all up because I want to see a solution to the problem. However, the deeper I get, the more problems I see and the less hopeful I am that this can be solved.
It also deeply troubles me that no one from Canonical has so much as uttered a peep about this. These are issues fundamental to Snaps and it’s going to take someone from Canonical to implement fixes.