5 ms·

So, this makes Flutter apps available through Canonical's Snap store... which is Ubuntu-mostly right now, and controversial enough that the top item on the HN f

by rst 6y ago

So, this makes Flutter apps available through Canonical's Snap store... which is Ubuntu-mostly right now, and controversial enough that the top item on the HN front page as I write is about an Ubuntu derivative (Linux Mint) explicitly dropping support for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23771847 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23771847

topspin 6y ago
"Canonical's Snap store" Correction: it's "the app store for Linux". /s
- chupasaurus 6y ago
  Show me any repo of snaps other than Snapcraft.
  - topspin 6y ago
    No. And I can't imagine what relevance that would have. If Linux has an "app store" it's Docker Hub. But "Linux" doesn't actually have an app store, and attempting to claim that status is tone-deaf hubris.
canada_dry 6y ago
Until SNAP gives me full control (and not just: you can opt-out) over updates/upgrades they're a non-starter.
- lallysingh 6y ago
  Does snap not let you manually do those?
  - ric2b 6y ago
    No, it updates by itself, sort of like Windows 10.
- timClicks 6y ago
  Many snaps provide channels so that you an pin your locally installed version to a specific upstream version. That way you have full control over when you upgrade.
- kelvie 6y ago
  Also it's ridiculously annoying debugging issues with them, or finding out what source code compiled into a particular snap. Even with docker hub I can find the sourcecode easily linked 99% of the time.
  - galgalesh 6y ago
    Yeah, it would be useful to have a metadata field "packaging repository" or something. Snaps built from GitHub with snapcraft.io include a manifest and the build recipe in the `meta` folder in the root of the snap. This includes all the info about the source code and allow you to reproduce it. Publishers can enable this on their own build infrastructure using an environment variable. Many snaps also link to the source repository in the "contact <publisher>" link.
simosx 6y ago
Other distributions also use the Snap Store. See the stats for the Skype snap package for the range of Linux distributions, https://snapcraft.io/skype https://snapcraft.io/skype
- jaekash 6y ago
  > Other distributions also use the Snap Store. Not if I can help it on fedora, and all things I ever tried form there did not work properly. > See the stats for the Skype snap package for the range of Linux distributions, https://snapcraft.io/skype https://snapcraft.io/skype Most of those are recycled Ubuntu. Still don't get how the reasoning there works: ah look a garbage distro, let's fork it and make it better? Pick literally anything else.
galgalesh 6y ago
The snap store support is a small part of what is announced here. The team developed a GTK+ based host for flutter, which works regardless of the packaging method you use. The end of the blog post talks about modifications to the snapcraft build tool to fully support flutter.
Rapzid 6y ago
It just seems like an ad in exchange for the work they did.
jaekash 6y ago
My first thought when seeing this post links to snapstore was "ugh, not that garbage again". Every time I tried using Snappy on fedora it did not work and was so horrible I reverted to immediately removing snappy from my computer afterwards. Canonical makes garbage software that is superficially easy to use but flimsy and flaky.
- nightowl_games 6y ago
  I'm all for Snap criticism, but Ubuntu is clearly good software made by Canonical. We need to stop using this level of inflammation in our discourse.
  - jaekash 6y ago
    > Ubuntu is clearly good software made by Canonical I can only speak for my own experience but if I had to choose between using Ubuntu for the rest of my life and losing a finger, I think I would lose a finger. There is no worse operating system I have ever used. It is Linux made by people who never bothered to open a manpage, software engineered by people who think engineering is waste of time. It is basically the Robert McNamara of operating systems, I can just hear him now, "there is no such thing as planning or engineering, just crisis management". Funny thing is they probably think crisis management is too big an ask. One of my biggest gripes with Windows is that many parts of it feels like it was created by people who never even tried it because it should be obvious to anybody who ever tried it that it is a horrible user experience. Ubuntu is basically the dumpster fire version of this. It's like someone read about dumpster fires and thought "wow, that sounds nice, how can we make an operating system like that".
    - galgalesh 6y ago
      This comment adds no value to the discussion; it's "Ubuntu bad, Canonical bad" stretched over 4 paragraphs. Yes, it's clear that you don't like them. HN discussion are expected to be more substantial than this.
owaislone 6y ago
Flutter announced support for Linux. Canonical announced that they'll help the Flutter team in making Flutter a great option to do app dev on Linux. They also published Flutter SDK to the Snap store, the preferred app store for Canonical. None of this means that people cannot package and publish Flutter to Debian, Ark or Fedora repositories. It'll still support Linux as a whole as long as the dependencies are present on the system. Canoncal is just investing resources in making sure it works for their distribution of Linux as well as possible, not to ensure that it only works on Ubuntu.

by rst 6y ago

topspin 6y ago

"Canonical's Snap store" Correction: it's "the app store for Linux". /s

chupasaurus 6y ago
Show me any repo of snaps other than Snapcraft.
- topspin 6y ago
  No. And I can't imagine what relevance that would have. If Linux has an "app store" it's Docker Hub. But "Linux" doesn't actually have an app store, and attempting to claim that status is tone-deaf hubris.

canada_dry 6y ago

Until SNAP gives me full control (and not just: you can opt-out) over updates/upgrades they're a non-starter.

lallysingh 6y ago
Does snap not let you manually do those?
- ric2b 6y ago
  No, it updates by itself, sort of like Windows 10.
timClicks 6y ago
Many snaps provide channels so that you an pin your locally installed version to a specific upstream version. That way you have full control over when you upgrade.
kelvie 6y ago
Also it's ridiculously annoying debugging issues with them, or finding out what source code compiled into a particular snap. Even with docker hub I can find the sourcecode easily linked 99% of the time.
- galgalesh 6y ago
  Yeah, it would be useful to have a metadata field "packaging repository" or something. Snaps built from GitHub with snapcraft.io include a manifest and the build recipe in the `meta` folder in the root of the snap. This includes all the info about the source code and allow you to reproduce it. Publishers can enable this on their own build infrastructure using an environment variable. Many snaps also link to the source repository in the "contact <publisher>" link.

simosx 6y ago

Other distributions also use the Snap Store. See the stats for the Skype snap package for the range of Linux distributions, https://snapcraft.io/skype https://snapcraft.io/skype

jaekash 6y ago
> Other distributions also use the Snap Store. Not if I can help it on fedora, and all things I ever tried form there did not work properly. > See the stats for the Skype snap package for the range of Linux distributions, https://snapcraft.io/skype https://snapcraft.io/skype Most of those are recycled Ubuntu. Still don't get how the reasoning there works: ah look a garbage distro, let's fork it and make it better? Pick literally anything else.

galgalesh 6y ago

The snap store support is a small part of what is announced here. The team developed a GTK+ based host for flutter, which works regardless of the packaging method you use. The end of the blog post talks about modifications to the snapcraft build tool to fully support flutter.

Rapzid 6y ago

It just seems like an ad in exchange for the work they did.

jaekash 6y ago

My first thought when seeing this post links to snapstore was "ugh, not that garbage again". Every time I tried using Snappy on fedora it did not work and was so horrible I reverted to immediately removing snappy from my computer afterwards. Canonical makes garbage software that is superficially easy to use but flimsy and flaky.

nightowl_games 6y ago
I'm all for Snap criticism, but Ubuntu is clearly good software made by Canonical. We need to stop using this level of inflammation in our discourse.
- jaekash 6y ago
  > Ubuntu is clearly good software made by Canonical I can only speak for my own experience but if I had to choose between using Ubuntu for the rest of my life and losing a finger, I think I would lose a finger. There is no worse operating system I have ever used. It is Linux made by people who never bothered to open a manpage, software engineered by people who think engineering is waste of time. It is basically the Robert McNamara of operating systems, I can just hear him now, "there is no such thing as planning or engineering, just crisis management". Funny thing is they probably think crisis management is too big an ask. One of my biggest gripes with Windows is that many parts of it feels like it was created by people who never even tried it because it should be obvious to anybody who ever tried it that it is a horrible user experience. Ubuntu is basically the dumpster fire version of this. It's like someone read about dumpster fires and thought "wow, that sounds nice, how can we make an operating system like that".
  - galgalesh 6y ago
    This comment adds no value to the discussion; it's "Ubuntu bad, Canonical bad" stretched over 4 paragraphs. Yes, it's clear that you don't like them. HN discussion are expected to be more substantial than this.

owaislone 6y ago

Flutter announced support for Linux. Canonical announced that they'll help the Flutter team in making Flutter a great option to do app dev on Linux. They also published Flutter SDK to the Snap store, the preferred app store for Canonical. None of this means that people cannot package and publish Flutter to Debian, Ark or Fedora repositories. It'll still support Linux as a whole as long as the dependencies are present on the system. Canoncal is just investing resources in making sure it works for their distribution of Linux as well as possible, not to ensure that it only works on Ubuntu.