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Snap Removed from Mint

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 09 2020, @06:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the working-behind-your-back dept.

hendrikboom writes:

Linux reviews notes that

The popular Linux Mint operating system has decided to purge the snap package manager from its repositories and forbid installation of it. The motivation for this drastic move is that the upstream Ubuntu Linux distribution Linux Mint is based on will stealthily install snapd and use that to install Chromium from the Canonical-controlled SnapCraft instead of installing a regular Chromium package like most users expect.

The Linux Mint blog has this to say about Ubuntu's use of snap to use their chromium package to subvert apt:

You've as much empowerment with this as if you were using proprietary software, i.e. none. This is in effect similar to a commercial proprietary solution, but with two major differences: It runs as root, and it installs itself without asking you.

Is Ubuntu turning evil?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by rigrig on Thursday July 09 2020, @08:12PM (5 children)

    by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Thursday July 09 2020, @08:12PM (#1018798) Homepage

    This isn't about that though: Linux Mint happily offers a whole bunch of applications as Flatpak alongside apt-based installs.

    For browsers this actually makes some sense:
    They are an extremely fast-moving target, so it takes a lot of effort[1] to keep up as a distro: either to backport changes so they work with the library versions you ship, or to update all those dependencies as well.
    But you do need to keep up, because this isn't about the latest shiny features in some editor, but a huge internet-exposed attack vector for all desktop users.

    Their issue is with Snap specifically [readthedocs.io]:

    Anyone can create APT repositories (...) if a bug isn’t fixed upstream, Debian can fix it with a patch. If Debian doesn’t, Ubuntu can. If Ubuntu doesn’t Linux Mint can. If Linux Mint doesn’t, anyone can, and not only can they fix it, they can distribute it with a PPA.

    (...) anyone can distribute their own Flatpaks. (...) Flatpak itself can point to multiple sources and doesn’t depend on Flathub.

    (...) Snap on the other hand, only works with the Ubuntu Store. Nobody knows how to make a Snap Store and nobody can.

    This is a store we can’t audit, which contains software nobody can patch. If we can’t fix or modify software, open-source or not, it provides the same limitations as proprietary software.

    Also, the way that Canonical made it so that apt install chromium-browser would install Chromium using snapd was deemed a sneaky way to start replacing APT with the Ubuntu Store.

    --
    No one remembers the singer.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 09 2020, @09:45PM (3 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday July 09 2020, @09:45PM (#1018834)

    I really liked Ubuntu 18.04 and upgraded to 20.04 without really thinking much about it, but after trying manage snaps for a couple of weeks I ditched it in favour of Pop!_OS, which despite the silly name is Ubuntu without the snaps.

    I can't really see how snaps could be worse for the end user. For example, opening a file from /home/username/video using the snap version of Openshot video editor is a whole bunch of unwanted clicks.

    I'm sure there are lots of other reasons to hate snaps, but as its Linux I have choices and so I exercised them.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:13PM (2 children)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:13PM (#1018847) Homepage Journal

      Ubuntu without the snaps ... Will it have chromium? And will that *not* be a snap in disguise?

      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:25PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:25PM (#1018854)

        It might have Chromium, I don't know as I don't have a need for it on a laptop but if it does it will either be Flatpak or Deb, based on every other thing I've installed.

        The Pop Store gives the choice at install time, which is nice.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 10 2020, @03:40PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 10 2020, @03:40PM (#1019110) Journal

        Ubuntu without snaps - you have a choice of buttons, or a zipper. You may have chrome buttons, a chrome zipper, or just chrome plate the whole thing - your preference.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by shortscreen on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:20PM

    by shortscreen (2252) on Thursday July 09 2020, @10:20PM (#1018852) Journal

    But you do need to keep up, because this isn't about the latest shiny features in some editor, but a huge internet-exposed attack vector for all desktop users.

    Web browsers are the purest manifestation ever of "latest shiny". That is why they (always and forever more) present such a vast attack surface.