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Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a S

Isn't it possible to improve Snap? What are the blocking points? - Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? - Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. What is going on with this?

Izkata 4y ago
> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Part of the design, snaps are a compressed disk image that has to be decompressed the first time it's started after a reboot.
- popey 4y ago
  That's only part of the story. There's other reasons, many of which have been improved over the years. For example the font cache would be generated on first launch, which was a slow operation. This was moved to happen when the snap is installed, which meant the install took longer, but first launch was much faster. For me, today, the Firefox snap and the Firefox deb take pretty much exactly the same amount of time.
- flakeoil 4y ago
  Parent commenter here. Actually, as someone above answered in the thread above, the slow Snap startup seems to be fixed.
rlpb 4y ago
> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Apparently this is fixed, though I think only on new snap package builds. Benchmarks are available that demonstrate that slow snap load times are no longer an issue (but the grapevine persists in saying that it is). > Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. Acknowledged and being fixed.
- flakeoil 4y ago
  > Apparently this is fixed Thanks, good to know. I had this issue with Bitwarden. I'm testing it now and it seems to be much faster than some weeks ago so that's nice.
curt15 4y ago
> What are the blocking points? * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores). * Applications installed as snaps are slow to start up because they are always stored in compressed form and must be decompressed to run. I don't understand what technical limitation prevents Snap from installing newer versions of an application in parallel with the old one, like how Flatpak updates work.
- rlpb 4y ago
  > * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores). This is no longer true. You can disable updates for a snap indefinitely: https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date#heading--hold https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date#heading--...
commoner 4y ago
Another issue with Snap is that it is locked to Canonical's closed source Snap Store server. Canonical can start fixing Snap by releasing the Snap Store server source code under a FOSS license and supporting multiple software sources in the Snap client. It makes no sense for the FOSS Linux ecosystem to regress to a system in which software is obtained from a single proprietary app store controlled by a single company.

Izkata 4y ago

> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Part of the design, snaps are a compressed disk image that has to be decompressed the first time it's started after a reboot.

popey 4y ago
That's only part of the story. There's other reasons, many of which have been improved over the years. For example the font cache would be generated on first launch, which was a slow operation. This was moved to happen when the snap is installed, which meant the install took longer, but first launch was much faster. For me, today, the Firefox snap and the Firefox deb take pretty much exactly the same amount of time.
flakeoil 4y ago
Parent commenter here. Actually, as someone above answered in the thread above, the slow Snap startup seems to be fixed.

rlpb 4y ago

> Apps installed as Snaps are slow to start-up. Why? Apparently this is fixed, though I think only on new snap package builds. Benchmarks are available that demonstrate that slow snap load times are no longer an issue (but the grapevine persists in saying that it is). > Snap from time to time asks to close a Snap-installed app to be able to update and often it seems it cannot update anyway. Acknowledged and being fixed.

flakeoil 4y ago
> Apparently this is fixed Thanks, good to know. I had this issue with Bitwarden. I'm testing it now and it seems to be much faster than some weeks ago so that's nice.

curt15 4y ago

> What are the blocking points? * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores). * Applications installed as snaps are slow to start up because they are always stored in compressed form and must be decompressed to run. I don't understand what technical limitation prevents Snap from installing newer versions of an application in parallel with the old one, like how Flatpak updates work.

rlpb 4y ago
> * The infamous forced updates are a business decision, not a technical one. Canonical took a page from Microsoft by taking control away from the user only to sell it back in an "enterprise" edition of the product (see their Brand stores). This is no longer true. You can disable updates for a snap indefinitely: https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date#heading--hold https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date#heading--...

commoner 4y ago

Another issue with Snap is that it is locked to Canonical's closed source Snap Store server. Canonical can start fixing Snap by releasing the Snap Store server source code under a FOSS license and supporting multiple software sources in the Snap client. It makes no sense for the FOSS Linux ecosystem to regress to a system in which software is obtained from a single proprietary app store controlled by a single company.