So word has gotten around that Canonical is making a move to make everything a SNAP package for Ubuntu 24.04. With the new "SNAP store" it places SNAP's first and .deb packages as second class. So why are they doing it? and what happens to classic Ubuntu?
To understand SNAPS we have to look at Ubuntu and think about what Ubuntu has done right. Canonical basically made a stable version of Debian testing. They made Debian user friendly for the novices. Easy to use and FREE. Ubuntu reigned supreme as the Linux desktop of choice for millions of people. Ubuntu has long pushed the limit of the Linux desktop for DECADES. Unity Desktop, despite the small number of people who hated it, was well received. We loved it our customers not so much. Every downstream Ubuntu spin that we have produced always had a Unity spin. Mostly for me but for those that liked Unity as well. But Ubuntu, for as much good as they do, have started to place themselves outside of the open source community. Canonical in its push to be different have alienated many, not all, but many in the OSS community. Why is that? Because Canonical has abandoned their core user base. What their user base wants is a stable Debian testing. There were many cheers when Ubuntu abandoned Unity and Mir. Personally, I think dumping Unity was a mistake. They should have just replaced Mir with Wayland IMO. But the user base and the industry was hoping they would abandon SNAPS later for Flatpack or AppImage which are arguably community standards. But Canonical has stayed the course. Ask yourselves, why does every downstream distribution of Ubuntu does not ship with SNAP's as the default?
SNAPS are proprietary. While SNAPD is open source the backend to SNAP's are not. Its centralized so there is that question of trust. SNAP's do have a broader range of support for non-desktop apps where Flatpak only focuses on desktop apps. Before this turns into a SNAP vs Flatpak argument. Why is Ubuntu doing this? To make money of course. Ubuntu is not a vanity project for Mark Shuttleworth. Its a business. Now, while I catch a lot of flack for that he doesnt. But thats OK mad respect for Mark because he makes no bones that he is doing this for profit. Thats why you get ad-bombed when you do a "sudo apt update" on a vanilla Ubuntu system about ESM packages and Ubuntu Advantage. But thats also where the problem comes in. I could see Ubuntu having two versions, classic Ubuntu: Stable Debian testing that Ubuntu users know and love. Ubuntu Pro/XL/Enterprise Linux WHATEVER that you attach ESM and Ubuntu Advantage to. Oracle does this. You download Oracle Linux for free then you add your support contract and you dont get ad-bombed every time you go to update the system. We know what Ubuntu Advantage is. We dont need to be reminded constantly.
So another variable is Ubuntu Core. The immutable OS that one of Canonicals employee's blogged about. They dont write blog posts like that to relay thoughts or to play out different scenarios. Its to gauge how many people are paying attention and how much shit is going to hit the fan when they do it. So its coming. It'll start with SNAP only, then it will evolve into an immutable core and then Ubuntu is done. Immutable OS's are good in the cases of phones, tablets, and systems where the user does very little modifications to the hardware they are running. With an open platform like Ubuntu (and others) its stupid unless of course you want to maintain thousands of images that cover all possible hardware configurations. Google does immutable because they control the hardware. Apple can do immutable because they control the hardware. Ubuntu doesnt. Unless of course Canonical enters into agreements with hardware vendors and decide on a specific presets of configurations. The only problem with that is the open market and you run into the same problem that Google has with ChromeOS Flex where the experience is great on some systems and not so great on others. Then users get frustrated, call you names online and on Youtube videos and then go buy a Windows PC or a Chromebook because they are going to say "Fuck Linux" and call it "garbage" At that point if you are going to run a ChromeOS like system just buy a Chromebook.
Canonical needs to work with the open source community more closely and use the community developed standards rather then try to pave their own way. While it may be rewarding to their balance sheets it comes at a sacrifice of their reputation within the Linux and open source communities. To Canonical; you gave it a go. You did a great job but SNAP is DEAD. If you cant get mainstream adoption on SNAP in the YEARS you have been developing this tech its dead. Work with the community on Flatpak and AppImage and stop fragmenting an already fragmented community and operating system.
