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?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @08:20AM (1 child)
That's like African for "Can't install Devuan", right?
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 10 2020, @04:02PM
It depends on which syllable is emphasized most. When all three are emphasized at the same time, it means "I don't know a damned thing and I want someone to hold my hand and do it for me!" In which case, the user could have stayed with Apple or Microsoft, but chose to do some virtue signaling instead.