Ask HN: Is snapd still controvertial on Ubuntu?

Posted by mariocesar 20 hours ago

I've been on Debian and sometimes Arch for years and wanted to try Ubuntu Desktop again. What surprised me is how often Snap shows up as the "Recommended" install way in their docs and others software "Install in Ubuntu" is mostly with Snap.

If you're using Ubuntu for Desktop today: how is Snap in practice? Any real pain points or is it basically fine now?

It's worthy?

Comments

Comment by Rotundo 19 hours ago

Snaps were the final straw that pushed me from Ubuntu to Debian.

From a ~/snap directory that can't be hidden by design (and the developers are rather vocal about that) to the snap experience of every application seeing their own version of the file system, no thank you. It's not for me. Debian is a delight after Ubuntu.

Comment by beardyw 19 hours ago

I've never been a Linux tinkerer and it seems just fine to me. Not everything is available that way, but apt seems to fill the gaps.

Comment by PaulHoule 20 hours ago

I can’t say I’ve installed a huge number of snaps but when I have they worked

Comment by mariocesar 20 hours ago

> I can’t say I’ve installed a huge number of snaps but when I have they worked

Thanks. Any apps you avoided installing as snaps?

Comment by PaulHoule 19 hours ago

No, but my use of GUI apps on Linux is limited.

Comment by more_corn 15 hours ago

I despise snap. Primarily because it mounts a new volume for every package.

I tore it out a couple times. I’m switching to another distro entirely. In part because the last time I tried to remove it I either didn’t remember how or the old way doesn’t work anymore.

I would recommend choosing a distro that doesn’t use it.