this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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No thanks. The Mint maintainers keeping provable misinformation in their documentation despite being called out on it makes me distrust them.
citation needed
https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
It also works with any other distribution and signing mechanism you want, including signing the snap files yourself and distributing them via GitHub releases if you prefer. Snaps installed like that won't get magically replaced with store snaps either.
There's documentation available online, and it's known to be usable because someone did implement their own minimal store. The project kinda died out of lack of interest though.
I can't find the issue I filed years ago about this (and more). They have at least made the page less filled with emotionally-charged language, though.
I don't know why we're still doing snap discourse in 2025. I'm going to be harsh and direct.
It has a proprietary server backend. This is objectively true. Theoretically you can build an open source backend, but nobody has completed a full implementation of it.
If you don't care about that, you can use Ubuntu, nobody is stopping you. You don't need other people's approval. Which is good, because of the people who disapprove, you're never going to get their approval until it's actually open sourced. You're not going to convince anybody here to stop caring that it's proprietary. So just get over it and use your own operating system without airing your insecurities online about it.
I never said Canonical's store isn't proprietary. I said the statements in Mint's anti-snap screed are factually incorrect.
What irritates me is all the "lol ubuntu sux" posts showing me that the quality of the discourse is declining. There are valid criticisms, but there are also invalid criticisms. And the recent string of anti-Ubuntu memes has been clearly in the latter. So yeah, I will mock those, and it's nothing to do with insecurities. Are you sure you're not just projecting?
The counter to low-quality "Ubuntu sux" posts is not low quality "nuh uh it's actually super epic!!!" posts, but that's all we ever get. I've seen this pattern for probably fifteen years now, and it's exhausting. If you don't care about the criticisms and want to keep using it, then keep using it. More power to you. I probably use things you think are garbage. Hell, Windows users think we both use garbage. I'm just tired of people desperate to justify their choices like they need to "prove" something to everyone who disagrees.
There are plenty of high quality takedowns of Ubuntu, but so rarely are there high quality defenses of it, generally because the criticisms are correct. Nobody ever talks about what makes Ubuntu good, not even Ubuntu users. Arch users will yap your ear off about ArchWiki and AUR. I'll evangelize Nix to anybody who will listen as the future of advanced Linux management. OpenSUSE Tumbleweed fans will not shut up about rollbacks and bleeding edge software. Fedora users... well, Fedora users are usually busy out there actually doing productive things with their time instead of pointless internet squabbles.
But what is Ubuntu strong at? I genuinely have no idea. All I ever see Ubuntu users say is that it "sucks the least", in some vague indescribable way. That it's not as bad as everyone says, that Snaps are actually fine, etc. Always on the defensive. If Ubuntu is actually good, somebody needs to get out there and make a case for what it's good at, besides being featured as the default instructions for running proprietary third-party software.
Okay, I'll start. Ubuntu is good at providing a way to test and build packages for platforms you don't necessarily have access to, for free. And because Launchpad does snap builds, that extends to those too. I have in the past used Launchpad builds to generate debugging information that solved an architecture-specific bug I wasn't able to reproduce in QEMU and which would otherwise have remained a mystery due to my lack of access to 6 figures worth of mainframe. And I didn't have to be an Ubuntu maintainer or anything for that. I just had to have a free Launchpad account.
Your example of Ubuntu being a good desktop is a web service run by Canonical that is relevant to maybe 1% of users, if not less?
Look, I'm happy that it works great for your use case. But this doesn't matter to most users, and it's also not even intrinsic to Ubuntu itself. OpenSUSE also has fantastic build services. Basically all major git services do too.
Launchpad is the basis of Ubuntu. And while OBS is pretty good, it's nowhere near as good as Launchpad. And what Launchpad does helps speed up Linux development in many ways.
Another example though, that's maybe more relevant: Ubuntu made it super easy for me to swap out CUPS on 22.04 with the latest version (published as a snap) that added a driver for a printer we needed. On most LTS type distros, doing something like that is painful. On Ubuntu, it was incredibly simple.
distroboxJust by how the documentation is written, you should understand who's its target audience: it's clearly for new users that want to understand their philosophy.
Is it oversimplified? Yes.
Does this mean it's misinformation? If I can oversimplify, then no it's not.
It's not oversimplified - it's exaggerating to the point of misinformation, and it's written more like a political screed than like documentation.
I don't see it that way but I'm not gonna argue, since I have no horse in this race. I'm not an ubuntu hater, I actually think it's both a good gateway to the FOSS world and a good permanent solutions for those who don't mind a corporate approach to linux. I just find it funny to take random punches at it once in a while...
Humour at Ubuntu's expense is fine, as long as it's good natured and actually making valid criticisms about it. The problem is that low effort "lol ubuntu bad" memes don't tend to be either of those. Moreover, documentation is not an appropriate place to make questionable political claims.
I read your comment in my head with the voice of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and made me laugh