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Former Canonical Dev Is Working on a Script That Replaces Snaps with Flatpaks

39 points by ossusermivami 3y ago

smoldesu 3y ago
I hate closed platforms as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't count on this getting very far. Snap has a lot of functionality that Flatpak doesn't (and vice-versa). They fill almost completely different niches, and I highly doubt desktop Linux users were the cash cows Canonical was counting on in the first place. It's nice that this exists, but it's not the David vs Goliath story many might spin it to sound like.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  > Snap has a lot of functionality that Flatpak doesn't (and vice-versa). Like what?
- lockhouse 3y ago
  The only business proposition for desktop Linux is winning the hearts and minds that make enterprise purchasing decisions and getting community members to do some of the heavy lifting of package maintenance and peer support.
  - frozenport 3y ago
    other stranger ideas include selling hardware with good linux support
- toyg 3y ago
  > I highly doubt desktop Linux users were the cash cows Canonical was counting on in the first place. Well, actually, that was very much Canonical's original business plan: polishing the Linux desktop so it could be sold to consumers and businesses. It just so happened that the virtual-machine/cloud "revolution" took place shortly after, and precisely because Ubuntu had gained mindshare by being "easy" and "polished", they had an advantage (as people preferred to use something they were already comfortable with) and became the most popular distribution for cloud deployments. Unfortunately they've since been unable to capitalize on that, partially because of bouts of "NIH" like Snaps.
wmf 3y ago
If you don't want snaps, vote with your feet and get off Ubuntu. Stop trying to fix something that doesn't want to be fixed.
- reaperman 3y ago
  With Ubuntu and RHEL clones out, what's in these days? Debian?
  - Shawnj2 3y ago
    Linux Mint is basically Ubuntu without snaps
    - CameronNemo 3y ago
      You run Mint on servers?
      - jraph 3y ago
        Of course there are use cases when Mint don't replace Ubuntu. You probably can use Mint on a server but for me, the obvious Debian-like server distro is Debian itself. I can't imagine one advantage of running Mint on a server. Mint is focused on the desktop. On the desktop, Mint really seems like Ubuntu without snaps, and a specific package management that is way more conservative when it comes to upgrades. And a focus on Cinnamon and Mate. On the desktop I would formerly advise Ubuntu. Today, I would just suggest Debian, which is the distro I trust the most, or maybe Mint. I just don't see any scenario where Ubuntu could be better than either of them. I use openSUSE Tumbleweed myself. I would not recommend it to a novice user. openSUSE Leap might be a solid choice but I never tried it so it's difficult to recommend it.
        CameronNemo 3y ago
        Incidentally, I discovered that GitLab happily supports their Runners being installed on Linux Mint. So plausibly that could be the smoking gun of people actually out there running mint on servers. Or maybe Dev workstation runners idk.
botlp 3y ago
Containers are “users” make a cgroup and namespace to isolate their processes. Oh wait; let’s make a new arbitrary DSL to tokenize and parse, and update operating system state with; the bajillion people who can use Ruby and Python would be helpless without it!
SushiHippie 3y ago
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36564579 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36564579 (8 points, 0 comments)

39 points by ossusermivami 3y ago

I hate closed platforms as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't count on this getting very far. Snap has a lot of functionality that Flatpak doesn't (and vice-versa). They fill almost completely different niches, and I highly doubt desktop Linux users were the cash cows Canonical was counting on in the first place. It's nice that this exists, but it's not the David vs Goliath story many might spin it to sound like.

brucethemoose2 3y ago
> Snap has a lot of functionality that Flatpak doesn't (and vice-versa). Like what?
lockhouse 3y ago
The only business proposition for desktop Linux is winning the hearts and minds that make enterprise purchasing decisions and getting community members to do some of the heavy lifting of package maintenance and peer support.
- frozenport 3y ago
  other stranger ideas include selling hardware with good linux support
toyg 3y ago
> I highly doubt desktop Linux users were the cash cows Canonical was counting on in the first place. Well, actually, that was very much Canonical's original business plan: polishing the Linux desktop so it could be sold to consumers and businesses. It just so happened that the virtual-machine/cloud "revolution" took place shortly after, and precisely because Ubuntu had gained mindshare by being "easy" and "polished", they had an advantage (as people preferred to use something they were already comfortable with) and became the most popular distribution for cloud deployments. Unfortunately they've since been unable to capitalize on that, partially because of bouts of "NIH" like Snaps.

wmf 3y ago

If you don't want snaps, vote with your feet and get off Ubuntu. Stop trying to fix something that doesn't want to be fixed.

reaperman 3y ago
With Ubuntu and RHEL clones out, what's in these days? Debian?
- Shawnj2 3y ago
  Linux Mint is basically Ubuntu without snaps
  - CameronNemo 3y ago
    You run Mint on servers?
    - jraph 3y ago
      Of course there are use cases when Mint don't replace Ubuntu. You probably can use Mint on a server but for me, the obvious Debian-like server distro is Debian itself. I can't imagine one advantage of running Mint on a server. Mint is focused on the desktop. On the desktop, Mint really seems like Ubuntu without snaps, and a specific package management that is way more conservative when it comes to upgrades. And a focus on Cinnamon and Mate. On the desktop I would formerly advise Ubuntu. Today, I would just suggest Debian, which is the distro I trust the most, or maybe Mint. I just don't see any scenario where Ubuntu could be better than either of them. I use openSUSE Tumbleweed myself. I would not recommend it to a novice user. openSUSE Leap might be a solid choice but I never tried it so it's difficult to recommend it.
      - CameronNemo 3y ago
        Incidentally, I discovered that GitLab happily supports their Runners being installed on Linux Mint. So plausibly that could be the smoking gun of people actually out there running mint on servers. Or maybe Dev workstation runners idk.

botlp 3y ago

Containers are “users” make a cgroup and namespace to isolate their processes. Oh wait; let’s make a new arbitrary DSL to tokenize and parse, and update operating system state with; the bajillion people who can use Ruby and Python would be helpless without it!

SushiHippie 3y ago

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36564579 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36564579 (8 points, 0 comments)