Mozilla's Next Stupid Move

Today we look at the next Mozilla insanity as they request Ubuntu to default to the Snap package, even when installing via the command line. We will talk about this design choice and what it could mean for the Firefox web browser.
#Mozilla #Firefox #Ubuntu

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[MrJunkes]

I was attacked in the past when I said their next move would be making Firefox as a snap, yeah, "I was totally wrong".

[Amos_Huclkeberry]

Let's make it feel like I'm running Firefox on an HDD again! Great idea! Not.

[Blueeeeeee]

It feels like they just want to die off, at this point...

[KuruGDI]

9:40 "I think you don't want my opinion, I think you want your opinion out of my mouth!" - That is such a good quote also seeing it outside of the Mozilla context
Also thanks for ranting about Snap - now I get why so many people dislike it. Maybe it will go the same way as Unity and Mir someday.

[gnarlin]

Snaps don't work without the wholly proprietary backend. If Canonical intends to swap the whole package system to a proprietary one then they will have abandoned the cause of liberating users from proprietary software.

[Amos_Huclkeberry]

You went full snap, man. Never go full snap.

[tylerdean]

Honestly one of the best things about arch Linux is you don’t need snaps or flatpaks it’s all in the AUR and repository

[BarryKoostachin]

One of the reason why I like MX Linux. No snap so far. I applaud Linux Mint for blocking snap by default.

Edit. I may abandon MX Linux if snap is installed on my computer.
Edit 2. One of the reasons why I prefer MX Linux. It's reliable on my old laptop.

[Bigbadwhitecracker]

There are no browsers left to use. Literally, there are no browsers left.

[RickSanchez-iglp]

It's very anti-consumer and privileged to expect everyone to have enough technical knowledge and time in their day to "trust the code" and audit everything on their own. We have to be able to trust the developer somehow.

[josephnorris]

If snaps were fast and easy to use, I would consider them as useful. However, the last time it took 10 seconds just for my web browser to open, it was on someone else's computer with a slow hard drive running Windows XP.

[kuhluhOG]

5:15 this is more because it makes debugging easier
there are bugs which are distribution specific because of weird side effects of system setups
Although snaps and flatpaks have some disadvantages, this is one of their advantages; you get the same god-damn environment.

[dappermuis]

Firefox has become the linux version of Internet explorer. It only gets used to download another browser. Now with the snap thing, is everyone going to go over to Vivaldi like Manjaro has done with thier cinnamon edition?

[ronaldcraig]

I just dumped Firefox and switched to Brave full-time.

[notrandomcharacters]

For the last few years I was hoping that firefox will increase it's market share. Now I guess, I need to wait more years.

[pedg]

I was sort of undecided on the Mozilla reasons until the fourth point... "less time on maintenance, more time for features" .... oh god, please no. No no no no no
They will ruin it even more... :/ ... sigh.

[OldieBugger]

Curiously, whenever an app starts malfunctioning in my system (LM 20.2) the reason usually is that I've accidentally installed a flatpak version. It seems that the flatpak version starts acting strangely (like Steam/flatpak stopped running most games), and to fix the problem I only need to choose the non-flatpak version. Don't know if this truly is the reason, but I've noticed this with 2 apps. Both started malfunctioning and this stopped when I installed the non-flatpak version. I have no reason to believe that snaps would be any better.

[lsatenstein]

What are the possibilities / likelihood that Mozilla will also provide a flatpack version? There must have been some arm-twisting by Ubuntu. Mozilla, do a snap package or we standardize on Chromium.

There is always some arm-twisting that takes place.

Snap or Flatpack is a war with the winner to see if Ubuntu wins or will Debian, Fedora, Microsoft, Arch, bend and abandon flatpack for snap? I think not.

Ubuntu does provide server facilities as well as desktop. Want to bet Ubuntu's server is using snap?

As an aside, I am using zfs, and the Linux distro that provides zfs is Ubuntu. zfs is a "I sleep well at night, no corruption, easy maintenance" file system for me. I prefer it to Btrfs.
However, on the 24 Sept, I will be wiping Ubuntu in order to install Fedora 35 beta-- with flatpack.

The advantage of flatpacks are that removal of a Flatpak software is nearly painless.

[Mr_Lnx]

IMO using some snaps it's great for simple install, I even use it for nextcloud on my server, but when it comes to have a entire os running on snaps? It's horrible to the point where on my tests ubuntu 18.04 runs better than 20.04 all because of snaps, and now Firefox wants to join the mess?.

Honestly I'm testing the Manjaro approach with Vivaldi

[CallsignEskimo-lo]

Another reason to stay with Linux Mint.