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Is this the first step towards a cross-distro package manager? If so, what's the point of distros anymore?

• angryteabag 10y ago
  Philosophy, desktop environment and pre-installed packages probably. From my understanding it is, in fact, a cross distro/cross version package manager.
  • pjmlp 10y ago
    Snaps are also sandboxed apps, that is the goal. To have something on GNU/Linux similar to what the mainstream desktop and mobile platforms already offer.
• evand 10y ago
  There's so much more to a distribution than how the software is packaged. Elementary is a great example: https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/ Yes, snaps make it so that the upstreams don't have to worry about repackaging their app for every distro. Just makes a snap and your app instantly works in a growing list of places: https://snapcraft.io/docs/core/install https://snapcraft.io/docs/core/install But it also simplifies the work for distros. You don't need careful human review of every upload when you can trust that the app is adequately sandboxed. You don't turn away upstreams because your distro is frozen for release. Much as I use Ubuntu myself, I find it sad that its success has created a high bar for smaller distros: the bulk of software vendors provide an Ubuntu-specific repo and nothing else (hello Spotify). Hopefully snaps will give distros broader reach and free them to innovate in more interesting areas.