Ubuntu looking to replace Chromium deb package with Snap

Unequivocally, unapologetically and shamelessly stolen from the Debian forums:

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/0...m-browser.html

Ubuntu will soon offer Chromium browser as a snap package instead of a regular deb package. This is not only for the upcoming Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine, but also for the already released Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco Dingo), and for LTS releases, like Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver). For a fist step, the Chromium deb package in Ubuntu 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) has been updated to install the stable snap on both upgrade or a new install. Once the transition is fully tested, "it will be rolled out to stable releases, starting with disco and then the LTSes". After this, Chromium will no longer be available as a deb package for Ubuntu users, installing the snap package being the only option. Ubuntu developer Olivier Tilloy mentioned that the transition from deb to snap is not being debated though, as it's "a firm plan that will eventually save a lot of engineering, builder and maintenance resources by removing the need to build every new version of chromium on all supported Ubuntu releases".

The shape of things to come. One wonders if this will apply to all .deb packages and if APT will go out the window.

I get the reasoning. I don't like the Windowsification of it though. Might as well put W10 on my upgraded machine instead of sticking to Ubuntu. The whole shared library thing is one of my main things I run Linux for. Unless of course I'm misunderstanding how snaps work.

Seems a bit of a kludgy fix. I have a different perspective though: FreeBSD does not mix application libs or configuration files (for the most part) in with the OS as Linux does. I get that Linux devs want to separate out these parts to avoid conflicts, etc. Snaps do not improve security though; they are just an organization mechanism. I want to say Apple does the same thing: bundle an app with its libs together into a package.

Not sure how much of a development burden this puts on distributors of these packages because if your app requires a specific version of a library, does that mean you have to maintain a different version of the library than upstream?

I'd be interested to see what distros like Mint, who are based on Ubuntu but don't by default use Snap, will do when it comes to creating their next release based on Ubuntu LTS. It should of course be easy enough to any prospective Chromium users to set up Snap but this wouldn't currently be compatible with, for example, the Mint Software Manager which only supports repository and Flatpak applications.

Are snap and flatpak the same thing (technology)? I don't know so seemed like a good time to ask

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd Are snap and flatpak the same thing (technology)? I don't know so seemed like a good time to ask

It's roughly the same concept, but they and AppImage are all incompatible with each other.

A useful list of the differences between these packaging technologies can be found here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/8665...pak-and-others

I hate the hype & bloat of containerised software install solutions on GNU/Linux, but for Chromium it makes sense.
Anything Google needs to be contained.