4 ms·

Snap is a weird bit of tech, Canonical are pushing it, but it's hard to find people recommending it online, they'll typically say, "here's the Flatpak". I actu

Snap is a weird bit of tech, Canonical are pushing it, but it's hard to find people recommending it online, they'll typically say, "here's the Flatpak". I actually grabbed GIMP last night using Flatpak, and a few weeks ago downloaded Tenacity the same way. I'm still unsure what the reason is to use one over the other, but Snapcraft is definitely losing the war of minds online, as far as I see.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
The problem people have with Snap is that it's basically a fiefdom run by Canonical. Canonical's repo is effectively the only one, they get to choose which software gets to be unsandboxed and which doesn't, and updates are forced. People don't like it because it is Microsoftian in its user hostility.
- toyg 5y ago
  > Microsoftian I think the actual word is "Apple-ish". Microsoft never succeeded in their appstore attempts, whereas Apple sadly did (and spectacularly so).
  - aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago
    On desktop? Nah…
  - oofbey 5y ago
    Maybe you don’t remember the software industry in the 90s when Microsoft was at the peak of their power. Nobody had heard of app stores but MS showed the world what a tech bully is. Putting profit over customer happiness, because they could.
    - toyg 5y ago
      > Maybe you don’t remember the software industry in the 90s I very much do. Software was sold in boxes in independent store chains. Sure, MS abused their position whenever they could, but their various attempts at building appstores they could control never really succeeded, the best they could do is abusing OEMs to preload this or that crapware. Apple, on the other hand, defined the market for walled-garden mobile appstores, with all their orwellian warts and obscene profiteering. But unlike with nerdy, cut-throat and business-y MS, "the public" loved their hip image and let them get away with it.
      - r00fus 5y ago
        MS clearly sabotaged Dr. Dos. Microsoft was notorious for announcing a competitor to a product (which was vapor), then buying out the now-struggling competitor and releasing that as their new product. Apple did the same with Sherlock (it's even a verb). But Microsoft had a monopoly (confirmed by a long federal antitrust lawsuit), and Apple did not, so Microsoft rightly gets the blame.
        toyg 5y ago
        Apple has an unofficial monopoly on the mobile market, one they are so keen to protect that they kick out developers who don't agree with their draconian policies - only to then grant some of their wishes to others because the restrictions are clearly monopolistic in nature (the Epic Games saga). Honestly, I'm all for throwing stones at Microsoft, but when it comes to appstores in particular Apple clearly are the most masterfully evil of them all.
- bombcar 5y ago
  What's the point in a one-repo thing? Just host the apt-repositories at that point ...
toyg 5y ago
> Snap is a weird bit of tech, Canonical are pushing it, but it's hard to find people recommending it A couple of years ago they were looking to recruit dev advocates specifically for Snap. I applied and never even got a response. I guess they hired the wrong ones ;)
Barrin92 5y ago
flatpak requires a desktop session so one straightforward difference is that snaps make sense on servers and iot devices which has to be said is probably where 90% of linux systems live on, and I think where Canonical's business focus has been.
- TeddyDD 5y ago
  I don't get it. What's the point of using Snaps on server when it's simpler to just run containers?
  - Barrin92 5y ago
    snap provides a form of containerization, if you talk about something like Docker, snap is significantly simpler because it's a container for an app rather than a container effectively for an entire VM. Practical example, I use nextcloud as a snap, which requires basically one command, it self updating, shares the same IP as the host whereas each docker container would have a separate ip. If you only want to isolate an individual application on a host system (which is a common use-case) most container technologies are overkill.
    - the_why_of_y 5y ago
      > shares the same IP as the host whereas each docker container would have a separate ip docker run --network=host was available several years earlier than snap.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

The problem people have with Snap is that it's basically a fiefdom run by Canonical. Canonical's repo is effectively the only one, they get to choose which software gets to be unsandboxed and which doesn't, and updates are forced. People don't like it because it is Microsoftian in its user hostility.

toyg 5y ago
> Microsoftian I think the actual word is "Apple-ish". Microsoft never succeeded in their appstore attempts, whereas Apple sadly did (and spectacularly so).
- aaaaaaaaaaab 5y ago
  On desktop? Nah…
- oofbey 5y ago
  Maybe you don’t remember the software industry in the 90s when Microsoft was at the peak of their power. Nobody had heard of app stores but MS showed the world what a tech bully is. Putting profit over customer happiness, because they could.
  - toyg 5y ago
    > Maybe you don’t remember the software industry in the 90s I very much do. Software was sold in boxes in independent store chains. Sure, MS abused their position whenever they could, but their various attempts at building appstores they could control never really succeeded, the best they could do is abusing OEMs to preload this or that crapware. Apple, on the other hand, defined the market for walled-garden mobile appstores, with all their orwellian warts and obscene profiteering. But unlike with nerdy, cut-throat and business-y MS, "the public" loved their hip image and let them get away with it.
    - r00fus 5y ago
      MS clearly sabotaged Dr. Dos. Microsoft was notorious for announcing a competitor to a product (which was vapor), then buying out the now-struggling competitor and releasing that as their new product. Apple did the same with Sherlock (it's even a verb). But Microsoft had a monopoly (confirmed by a long federal antitrust lawsuit), and Apple did not, so Microsoft rightly gets the blame.
      - toyg 5y ago
        Apple has an unofficial monopoly on the mobile market, one they are so keen to protect that they kick out developers who don't agree with their draconian policies - only to then grant some of their wishes to others because the restrictions are clearly monopolistic in nature (the Epic Games saga). Honestly, I'm all for throwing stones at Microsoft, but when it comes to appstores in particular Apple clearly are the most masterfully evil of them all.
bombcar 5y ago
What's the point in a one-repo thing? Just host the apt-repositories at that point ...

toyg 5y ago

> Snap is a weird bit of tech, Canonical are pushing it, but it's hard to find people recommending it A couple of years ago they were looking to recruit dev advocates specifically for Snap. I applied and never even got a response. I guess they hired the wrong ones ;)

Barrin92 5y ago

flatpak requires a desktop session so one straightforward difference is that snaps make sense on servers and iot devices which has to be said is probably where 90% of linux systems live on, and I think where Canonical's business focus has been.

TeddyDD 5y ago
I don't get it. What's the point of using Snaps on server when it's simpler to just run containers?
- Barrin92 5y ago
  snap provides a form of containerization, if you talk about something like Docker, snap is significantly simpler because it's a container for an app rather than a container effectively for an entire VM. Practical example, I use nextcloud as a snap, which requires basically one command, it self updating, shares the same IP as the host whereas each docker container would have a separate ip. If you only want to isolate an individual application on a host system (which is a common use-case) most container technologies are overkill.
  - the_why_of_y 5y ago
    > shares the same IP as the host whereas each docker container would have a separate ip docker run --network=host was available several years earlier than snap.