In my opinion Snaps are superior in terms of design and functionality than Flatpak. In practice, there are many poorly implemented snap packages. There were annoying bugs with the snap system for a long time like the update/close app notification. There’s not enough features for holding snap updates. And there isn’t built-in support for multiple repos. I like Snap but there have been legitimate problems with it (along with a lot of illegitimate ones) and the mindshare has shifted to Flatpak, which albeit inferior, fulfils most of the Snap use cases. In the end the social infrastructure is more important than the exact technology and that’s much stronger around Flatpak. I use both on Ubuntu and only Flatpak on Debian.
If it matters, I’m a senior software guy who’s used Linux professionally for many use cases for 10-15 years. Been personally using Ubuntu since 2005. Am switching new machines to Debian because Canonical is planning to do IPO and enshittifaction would inevitably follow. Not because of Snap. 😅
I’ve been following Snap since it was called Click back in 2011-13 because it was solving a lot of problems that the classic, trusted package management had and still has. Problems that were elegantly solved on Android with the APK package and sandboxing system. That was pretty exciting so I might have a somewhat different perspective. :D
For me it wasn’t so much the universal part than the reduced maintenance work that comes with bundled depdnencies which makes a package work over more OS releases without breaking, as well as the higher upgrade success rate.
But yeah I like the trusted repo model that Debian uses. It’s a lot of work by many volunteers and the result is great, so long as people keep doing it.
In my opinion Snaps are superior in terms of design and functionality than Flatpak. In practice, there are many poorly implemented snap packages. There were annoying bugs with the snap system for a long time like the update/close app notification. There’s not enough features for holding snap updates. And there isn’t built-in support for multiple repos. I like Snap but there have been legitimate problems with it (along with a lot of illegitimate ones) and the mindshare has shifted to Flatpak, which albeit inferior, fulfils most of the Snap use cases. In the end the social infrastructure is more important than the exact technology and that’s much stronger around Flatpak. I use both on Ubuntu and only Flatpak on Debian.
If it matters, I’m a senior software guy who’s used Linux professionally for many use cases for 10-15 years. Been personally using Ubuntu since 2005. Am switching new machines to Debian because Canonical is planning to do IPO and enshittifaction would inevitably follow. Not because of Snap. 😅
You are now my enemy.
Snaps was one of the earlier enshittification indicators, and the point where I jumped ship.
I’ve been following Snap since it was called Click back in 2011-13 because it was solving a lot of problems that the classic, trusted package management had and still has. Problems that were elegantly solved on Android with the APK package and sandboxing system. That was pretty exciting so I might have a somewhat different perspective. :D
When I started with linux in late 2003, I soon came to wish for some universal packaging system.
I have grown to regret that wish.
For me it wasn’t so much the universal part than the reduced maintenance work that comes with bundled depdnencies which makes a package work over more OS releases without breaking, as well as the higher upgrade success rate.
But yeah I like the trusted repo model that Debian uses. It’s a lot of work by many volunteers and the result is great, so long as people keep doing it.
Yep… keep giving back. :)
That’s interesting. I kind of feel the same way. Snap seem great and have improved a bit. But it lacks certain controls that Flatpak has.
It also covers more than just desktop apps, you can install a lot of other software in sandboxes.