Snaps requiring paypal payment to unlock

Desktop
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It appears snaps coming from the Canonical store can be installed but not useable until payment is made via paypal.
One example would be Qstamina-snap which is available from ubuntu-software.
Is this proper?

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A store is something that sells…

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I understand that, it’s just it’s not clear as to who is receiving payment.
I thought Canonical took payments for store purchases, paypal doesn’t really say.

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Start a topic on store - snapcraft.io :slight_smile:

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If an app cannot be installed through the normal way, then it should not be trusted. I have uninstalled snapd, snap folder, ubuntu core etc in any Ubuntu (and derivatives).

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These are the paid Apps. Do not type wrong information please

Also Google Play Store and Apple Store does the same right ?
Edit : Forgot to mention Windows Store … and it’s “telemetry” and those buil-in Disney Apps
Dude wake up

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How is this different from installing spotify or slack and needing to pay them for additional / premium services?

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I’d argue that we shouldn’t use these proprietary services as models here :wink:

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Whether the source is open or not for a specific destribution platform doesn’t change the nature of commercial software. Naturally there’ll be some cultural conflict in some elements of the community as developers bring more commercial software to linux. But, whether it’s games or AutoCAD or Adobe stuff, there’s a lot of stuff out there that people want to pay for and use which could have a home on linux, finally, as the snap store matures and continues to gain traction.

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Nobody is forcing you to install the application

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Sure, I didn’t even want to do so :wink: What I meant was that only allowing a single method of payment using a single account is dangerous IMHO, especially if it isn’t libre.

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My question was simply about the method of sale or in the case of my example, a pseudo sale.
In Canonical’s Terms & Conditions for snap dev’s it says they will handle the sale of snaps in their store.
(- and subtract 20-30% commissions

Has this changed and snap dev’s can seek payment by any method they choose?

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As I said before can you file this on store - snapcraft.io please? That’s where the snappy devs and users hang out (though there’s obviously considerable overlap here).

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Agreed. Are the “paid for snaps” separated from the regular ones? If not they should be listed in their own category that clearly lists “Paid Snaps”.

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Paid snaps (through Canonical infrastructure) is coming. Until then, it’s not unreasonable for application developers to use other 3rd party payment services.

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It is not unreasonable to ask for payments for a product. We pay for everything we use, except maybe the Linux distro. The whole idea of the open source dies, when paid apps starts arriving - something has to be blocked somewhere in the app, so a (geeky ?) user won’t be able to see it, and change it - Pay for unlocking. There could be some other stuff also hidden in those locked apps.

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I know you said ‘open source’ here, but ‘free software’ (an even stricter concept) means free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

Tales of Maj’Eyal (which, at the moment, you can get for no money with snap install talesofmajeyal) is on Steam for £5 (with some DLC too!) and is free and open-source, what’s wrong with the developer trying to get funding that way?

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It’s fine! I think we should use a concept similar to elementaryOS here. Free (as in Freedom) Software & Donations via Pay-What-You-Want

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Personally I have no issues with non-free (as in beer) apps on the store - As long as it’s indicated as such before one installs any commercial snap. No one wants surprises after the install which IMO, wouldn’t reflect well on Canonical.

Cheers.

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Proprietary software is allowed in the snap store, if you want to contest that you can make a controversial topic on forum.snapcraft.io but given Ubuntu, at least, allows proprietary software in its store (included in the restricted and multiverse repositories as well as in the optional Canonical Partners repository), I don’t think your proposal would be accepted! Also I don’t think it’s right to enforce pay-what-you-want, developers should be able to charge what they like, but again, make a topic on store - snapcraft.io asking for it to be made an option! It was mentioned in this long (now closed) topic, but a topic just asking for pay-as-you-want might be more successful.

I think some JetBrains IDEs are free on the snap store but require a licence to be used once installed?

Perhaps there should be a micro-payments flag in software centres? Perhaps the store should surface this (so that software centres can display that flag)? If this sounds like a good idea someone should start a topic on store - snapcraft.io, thanks!

1 Like