[kwlug-disc] Ubuntu LTS future

[Doug Moen]

Just to expand on one point about Snap, the only 3D modelling tool that worked flawlessly on my system (using Snap) was Blender, and that's because Blender has sandboxing turned off. Canonical will normally not allow snaps with sandboxing disabled in their store, but Blender was able to negotiate special permission. I doubt I have the political clout to negotiate the same deal with Canonical, to get a non-sandboxed version of Curv into the Snap store. I do have the same technical requirements as Blender, however.

Flatpak is basically like Snap, but it is open source, and software vendors can run their own flatpak server and have a direct relationship with their users, without Canonical or Red Hat forcibly interposing themselves as intermediaries.

Doug Moen.

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020, at 1:08 AM, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc wrote:
> 
> Wow. I did not realize that the Snap ecosystem was not FLOSS. This has
> opened my eyes.
> 
> So it seems that you can make your own snaps using free software?
> https://github.com/snapcore/snapcraft
> 
> so the locked down part is the server. I wonder if there is a
> competing project to make FLOSS snap repos? 
> 
> Also, it looks like snaps come with a luscious dollop of surveillance: 
> 
> > Make data-driven decisions with active install metrics. Watch as
> > automatic updates migrate users to your latest release. Understand
> > your audience with geographic and version breakdowns.
> 
> (from https://snapcraft.io/) 
> 
> The other approach that comes to mind here is NixOS. Maybe that is the
> answer to the bleeding-edge vs LTS issue?
> 
> - Paul
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 08:31:47PM +0000, Doug Moen wrote:
> > 
> > Partly it's because the snap system is not open source. It is proprietary and locked down. There is only one snap store, controlled by Canonical. You can't distribute snaps to other users without Canonical's permission, since nobody else can create a snap server. You can copy snap files around but then there is no update mechanism. Same problem as Apple's iOS app store (which is one reason I refuse to own an iOS device). Snap is part of a long term vision to gradually evolve Ubuntu into a more locked-down, proprietary system like iOS. I'm getting out now, rather than living with a degraded experience and watching it slowly get worse with successive future releases. Same reason I'm switching my laptop from Mac to Linux.
> > 
> > Others have noted that you have no control over when snaps upgrade, and you can't roll back an upgrade that breaks your system.
> > 
> 
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