[HN Gopher] Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic Kudu
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic Kudu
        
       Author : pantalaimon
       Score  : 277 points
       Date   : 2022-10-20 14:28 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ubuntu.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ubuntu.com)
        
       | overshard wrote:
       | I used to use Ubuntu for everything and was very happy in the
       | massive Ubuntu ecosystem with a .deb for everything till I was
       | forced to use Snap a few releases ago for installing even some
       | basic utils I used on a daily basis. I then had Snap constantly
       | hang on installs and just break for no apparent reason and waste
       | my time debugging it. It didn't "just work" anymore.
       | 
       | Swapped to Arch and haven't looked back yet, Arch took me a lot
       | more work to get set up but once it was it's been pretty
       | invisible, which is how I like my OS to be.
       | 
       | I'd probably happily swap back to Ubuntu if I read somewhere that
       | Snap was removed entirely/canceled or something.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | I would love to switch away, but nVidia is forcing me to use
         | Ubuntu on their Jetson series of products.
        
         | severino wrote:
         | I also use Ubuntu a lot, and while I'm disappointed about this
         | Snap thing, I'm still not looking for alternatives.
         | 
         | At least until 22.04 I could dodge snaps pretty easily, but
         | now, since Firefox is now a snap package, things went worse, at
         | least for me. I gave it a try and, while the experience was not
         | as bad as I feared, I soon encountered problems with things
         | like trying to use a smartcard reader for signing documents,
         | something that used to work out of the box with the non
         | sanboxed version of Firefox and now it's broken with snaps (or
         | at least some weeks ago).
         | 
         | I ended up downloading a Firefox tarball from the official
         | site. I know you can use a PPA for that, but I don't feel
         | comfortable having software as critical as a web browser from a
         | third-party Ubuntu PPA.
         | 
         | Maybe I should give Pop OS a try...
        
           | pantalaimon wrote:
           | I just switched to Chrome, it's available as a .deb from
           | Google.
        
             | tssva wrote:
        
           | stevekemp wrote:
           | I run Debian on all my systems, and to be honest firefox is
           | something I always maintain separately.
           | 
           | /opt/firefox contains the latest binary download from the
           | official site.
           | 
           | The application is one that updates frequently enough that
           | the gain is worthwhile.
        
             | bornfreddy wrote:
             | This. The packages make sense for the apps that don't
             | change frequently, but browsers don't match this
             | description.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | It's the opposite of the way things should be. Package
               | managers _should_ have the most utility for applications
               | that update frequently, because isn 't the raison d'etre
               | of a package manager to make updating programs easier?
               | 
               | Some distros manage to get it right. I haven't had any
               | trouble using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed's packaged Firefox.
        
               | michaelmrose wrote:
               | You are right its not the fact that it updates
               | frequently. It is when the distro package is an inferior
               | option either because of version or build options.
        
               | chrisallenlane wrote:
               | I've discovered a workflow I'm happy with.
               | 
               | I run Debian stable on my workstation, and manage most of
               | my packages with `apt`. As such, everything "just works,"
               | and flawlessly.
               | 
               | For the handful of packages that I want to upgrade
               | aggressively, I manage them with Nix[1].
               | 
               | I've been doing this for maybe two or three years, and
               | despite a little extra complexity, it feels like a best-
               | of-both worlds scenario. I get the rock-solid stability
               | of Debian stable, but the one or two packages that need
               | to stay cutting-edge are able to do so.
               | 
               | I also don't have trouble with package conflicts, because
               | the entire point of Nix is to prevent those kinds of
               | problems.
               | 
               | This has been great for me. Do recommend.
               | 
               | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_(package_manager)
        
               | kzrdude wrote:
               | The package repository should be the off-the-shelf items
               | in the grocery store, while installing separately is the
               | big-ticket and custom made items. Installing apps
               | separately doesn't scale very well, but it makes sense to
               | just do it for firefox and certain others. IMO.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | Firefox is "big ticket", but not "custom made"; one
               | firefox package or installer should suit everybody fine.
               | I think package managers can do very well with Firefox if
               | the package is managed well.
        
               | kzrdude wrote:
               | It's the user's choice how to install Firefox for sure.
               | The opa works fine on ubuntu
        
               | josephg wrote:
               | Exactly. I use Linux mint (without snaps) and Firefox
               | works great. It updates pretty frequently through mint's
               | software update tool, which is just running apt and
               | installing package updates.
               | 
               | All this talk of snaps and using PPAs sounds like a an
               | unnecessary headache. What's the point of a package
               | manager if it doesn't keep your packages up to date?
        
           | nequo wrote:
           | Firefox ESR is available in a PPA that is maintained by
           | Mozilla. Even though that's a third party, that's as close to
           | an official package as it gets.
           | 
           | I'm just hoping that it will remain available until this snap
           | thing subsides, or until I make the switch to GNU Guix or
           | something.
           | 
           | Edit: It seems that the latest stable Firefox is available,
           | too.[1] I thought it was only ESR and that Ubuntu's switch to
           | snap was requested by Mozilla. I'm confused.
           | 
           | [1] https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+p
           | ack...
        
             | nvrspyx wrote:
             | It seems like they've been including stable, non-ESR builds
             | for at least the last few releases (I only went back a few
             | pages of previous builds). Launchpad is confusing for me,
             | but my impression is that they're using that PPA to build
             | the stable release using the Launchpad service and then
             | packing that build as a snap. It seems like they're just
             | uploading the snap package rather than building it using
             | Launchpad.
             | 
             | If that's the case, maybe it's a limitation of Launchpad?
        
           | CoastalCoder wrote:
           | > Maybe I should give Pop OS a try...
           | 
           | I'm a big fan: it's like Ubuntu, but with much of Canonical's
           | divisive changes reverted, and with a few other improvements.
           | 
           | I switched from Ubuntu to Pop!_OS a few releases back when I
           | got a System76 computer. (I also use it on my Lenovo laptop.)
        
             | smallerfish wrote:
             | I wish Pop OS would tackle KDE. It's a much better DE
             | (particularly if you like to customize), but there are very
             | few (if any) distributions which have an opinionated tuned
             | experience out of the box.
        
               | dev_daftly wrote:
               | They are transitioning COSMIC from gnome to be it's own
               | standalone DE built on rust
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | KDE would be superb if it weren't so buggy. KDE is aimed
               | in the right direction, trying to do and be all the
               | things a desktop environment should do and be. But
               | unfortunately the implementation is frequently deficient.
               | Even seemingly basic things frequently break, like re-
               | applying mouse preferences when you unplug and replug
               | your mouse: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=435113
               | 
               | A couple more recent annoyances, of many: Plasma looks
               | great but frequently my panels go missing and don't
               | reappear until I restart plasma shell. Dolphin has all
               | the functionality I want and looks great, but frequently
               | fails to watch directories for new files, forcing me to
               | F5. Lots of little things like this turn into death by a
               | thousand papercuts.
        
               | smallerfish wrote:
               | Yeah, hence my wish that somebody with strong opinions,
               | financing and some energy would adopt KDE as the main
               | distro.
               | 
               | There are some very prolific people involved in the KDE
               | project, but from my understanding some of the distros,
               | e.g. Kubuntu, are conservative and slow to contribute
               | anything.
        
               | imiric wrote:
               | That might be the case, but is there an alternative with
               | a similar feature set?
               | 
               | The latest GNOME versions are even buggier, and when it
               | does work, it feels like a toy project compared to KDE.
               | It's baffling to me that it's been years since the v3
               | controversy, yet the project still doesn't feel as mature
               | and polished as KDE Plasma.
               | 
               | All v2 forks also feel like someone's hobby project to
               | bring disparate tools together, rather than a cohesive
               | desktop. I'm sure some MATE and Cinnamon fans would
               | disagree, but IMO the modern desktop experience has moved
               | on since 2010.
               | 
               | Similarly with LXDE, Fluxbox and a myriad of others.
               | These are great for certain environments, but none of
               | them can compare to the polish that KDE has, let alone
               | something like macOS.
               | 
               | To be fair, I'm not bashing on minimalistic or window
               | manager-only setups. I've been using bspwm on Void Linux
               | for many years now as my main working environment, and
               | wouldn't change it for the world. But when I want to stop
               | being productive, consume content, and not have to
               | troubleshoot issues on my machine, I prefer to use a more
               | featureful environment with a friendlier UI. Since macOS
               | is out of the question, and Windows is purely for gaming
               | (and even that is going away, thanks to Valve), KDE is
               | pretty much my only choice on Linux. Which I've been
               | enjoying for a few months now on NixOS.
               | 
               | But I do wonder if there is really a DE that can compare
               | to it. AFAIK more ambitious projects like elementary OS,
               | Deepin and Solus are still experimental, to the point
               | where I don't even keep track of their updates.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | I'm afraid I don't have a great answer. Right now I'm
               | using LXQt with Kwin as my window manager; LXQt replaces
               | Plasma and solves a lot of my problems with KDE, but
               | isn't as slick as Plasma when Plasma is working. I
               | replaced Dolphin with PCManFM, which isn't quite as slick
               | either but it's adequate and seems to reliably watch
               | directories for updates. I've stuck with some KDE
               | applications, like Okular which has never disappointed
               | me.
        
             | everybodyknows wrote:
             | Does System76 have a sustainable business? My concern would
             | be putting time invested into their tech, then later
             | finding support gone wrong.
        
               | bobthecowboy wrote:
               | Well they've been in business for over a decade, so
               | that's something. Does that translate into maintaining
               | PopOS indefinitely? Eh....
        
               | CoastalCoder wrote:
               | I have no idea how healthy System76 is, but at least for
               | my work, I could pretty trivially revert to Ubuntu if I
               | needed to.
        
               | fhd2 wrote:
               | Recently converted to their hardware after a rather long
               | line of Macbooks. Completely happy - everything. just.
               | works. First Linux laptop I've had where I didn't need to
               | fiddle with anything, way less than macOS.
               | 
               | Regarding their business model, they do design the
               | laptops (even if they don't produce them themselves), but
               | I get their impression their competitive edge are two
               | different things:
               | 
               | 1. Branding/marketing (to non-mainstream users, but we're
               | talking about them right now, so I guess it's working)
               | 
               | 2. Software: Ensuring everything works smoothly. It's not
               | just firmware and drivers - having their own distribution
               | seems quite key, otherwise it's trickier to cater to
               | _their_ users needs. Keeping it close to the most popular
               | distributions seems smart to me.
               | 
               | Pop OS clearly is a big deal for (2), but I think it even
               | contributes to (1). Since they make money (apparently
               | sustainably so) from selling hardware, and given that it
               | appears Pop OS is an important driver of that business,
               | I'd wager it's not going anywhere as long as they have a
               | working hardware business.
        
               | acomjean wrote:
               | They seem to. They sell computers (with Ubuntu or
               | Pop!_OS). I'm at least the 2nd one to get one at my work
               | (that I know of). They're not "cheap", and if you know
               | what they are and what you are doing you could just buy a
               | similar model for a bit less and install linux on
               | that.(they're rebadged clevos, I've replaced a fan on
               | one..)
               | 
               | But if you buy from them it comes with linux pre-
               | installed (yeah!) which saves time and stress. It was
               | easy and they do support you, and my 2 experiences with
               | support where very good (Os and hardware). Plus Mat
               | screens.
               | 
               | I was skeptical about yet another distro, but after using
               | I kinda like Pop!_os despite the name. Its my daily
               | driver now. The "Pop shop" where it does upgrades and
               | software installs is decent enough. It seems to let me
               | choose "flatpack (flathub)" or "debs" for most software.
               | I haven't had any issues with either, though looking
               | though my list its vscode and gimp which are my flatpack
               | installs..
               | 
               | One great thing about Ubuntu and variants is that it's
               | got a lot of software that works well with it.
        
               | lambic wrote:
               | I've had a System 76 laptop for a few months now and I'm
               | pretty happy with it. They've done a good job with
               | Pop!Os, it's the only distro I've found that has made
               | Gnome usable for me out of the box.
               | 
               | The only downside over my previous laptop (Dell XPS) is
               | that I can no longer run 2 external monitors, the System
               | 76 hardware just doesn't seem to be able to handle it.
        
               | francislavoie wrote:
               | They're a 17 year old company. I think they're pretty
               | stable.
        
             | 7speter wrote:
             | >I'm a big fan: it's like Ubuntu, but with much of
             | Canonical's divisive changes reverted, and with a few other
             | improvements
             | 
             | Hmm, I assumed that PopOS pretty much just added their own
             | extra stuff to an Ubuntu install. I didn't realize they got
             | rid of the default snap cruft?
             | 
             | Anyways, the last time I used Pop it had this weird upgrade
             | to nowhere thing happened where it prompted me to update
             | and then the update files were nowhere to be found.
        
         | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
         | Canonical really showed their colors with Snap I think. The
         | base concept is obviously one desired by many users, as
         | evidenced by the existence of alternatives like Flatpak and
         | AppImage which both(?) predate it, not to mention ROX AppDirs,
         | GNUStep Application Bundles, and a few others.
         | 
         | But Canonical insists on their own implementation which is
         | entirely controlled by them. Only they have a Snap repo, they
         | follow the hated Windows model of forced updates, etc.
         | 
         | Someday I think Ubuntu will have to give up Snaps to remain
         | relevant and switch to (probably) Flatpak, but they're going to
         | lose a lot of users in the mean time.
        
           | zmk5 wrote:
           | I honestly hope not. I like the fact that other distros are
           | trying things themselves. If you don't like it, just switch
           | to a different one. Whats the point of different distros if
           | they all do the same thing?
        
         | bigmattystyles wrote:
         | I think I was bit by snap (Firefox refusing to start) - I just
         | don't have the mental energy to learn what snap is and why I
         | can't or shouldn't just use apt-get like I always have. Or do I
         | have to use both now? (edit: if you want to quickly answer
         | great, but I'm really putting my frustrations into words)
        
         | akvadrako wrote:
         | You don't have to use Snap at all. I've been using latest
         | Ubuntu for a few years and I just uninstall it after every
         | major upgrade.
         | 
         | I do use flatpak for a lot of stuff, but it's better than Snap
         | in many ways: it's faster, you can upgrade while apps are
         | running, it allows third party repos, etc...
        
           | gauddasa wrote:
           | And also, you do not need administrative privilege to install
           | Flatpak apps. Snap mandates administrative privilege. The
           | only downside is accessing utilities from frameworks using
           | command line is difficult and tricky in Flatpak.
        
           | rcthompson wrote:
           | They make it nearly impossible to avoid snap. Every couple of
           | upgrades, they unconditionally run a script that forcibly
           | removes the Firefox deb and installs the snap. Nothing I've
           | tried has been able to prevent this. It seems to be hard
           | coded somewhere.
           | 
           | So it's kind of like saying "well you don't _have_ to stay in
           | the pit " except you keep pushing me in the pit every time I
           | climb out.
        
             | Andys wrote:
             | I'm not finding this to be the case, on every computer I
             | now uninstall snapd completely and use the firefox-esr PPA
             | (mentioned elsewhere), and I am able to apt-get dist-
             | upgrade regularly with no problems.
        
         | Jenk wrote:
         | Arch does have a slight hangup - you can't pin versions of
         | stuff without creating a whole new pkgbuild.
        
         | yamtaddle wrote:
         | Snap is so bad that everyone who's not at Canonical (and
         | probably even _most_ of them) can tell it should go away. It 's
         | plainly not the right solution.
        
         | mixmastamyk wrote:
         | After 15 years switched to Mint Cinnamon, it's quite nice now.
         | It is easier than ubuntu because removing snap is no longer a
         | task.
         | 
         | Next up need an alternative to Firefox, it's very disapointing
         | how much has to be configured to turn off all the bullshit
         | analytics, "colorways?", and get a blank new tab page.
        
           | 6c696e7578 wrote:
           | I don't think there'll be a good alternative until Firefox
           | isn't the alternative to Chrome.
        
         | umvi wrote:
         | I use OpenSUSE Tumbleweed which is also rolling release, and
         | the one thing that bugs me is that sometimes your tools are so
         | cutting edge that it makes it hard to get older stuff. For
         | example it's super easy to get python 3.10 working in
         | Tumbleweed but super hard to get python 3.6 working.
         | 
         | I needed specifically Python 3.6 to test something, and man
         | that was hard to get working in Tumbleweed. First of all, it is
         | not available in standard repos or pre-built on python's
         | website. Second of all, downloading 3.6 source and building it
         | fails because (apparently) the GCC version I have is too new
         | and creates problems with the `-O3` flag passed during
         | building. So now I have to install an older version of GCC that
         | plays nice with python 3.6 source code...
         | 
         | Eventually I just said "screw it" and used the docker
         | python:3.6 image. Not quite as convenient as having a native
         | python3.6, but "good enough". Not sure what I would do if that
         | image became unavailable.
        
           | int_19h wrote:
           | That's exactly the kind of stuff that
           | https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv is meant to handle.
        
             | umvi wrote:
             | I started down that route as well but was running into the
             | same gcc issues as when compiling manually. I found this
             | issue https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/issues/2046 but the
             | workaround didn't immediately work for me and I didn't dig
             | any deeper.
        
           | tmtvl wrote:
           | I've also been using TW for a while now (6 or so years) and
           | I've taken to using GNU Guix as an environment manager when I
           | need a specific version of some software.
        
         | smashed wrote:
         | My first encounter with snaps was launching gcalc, the basic
         | built-in calculator app.
         | 
         | At some point after an update, launching that app would take
         | multiple seconds. How could the most basic gtk app be so slow
         | to launch.
         | 
         | Investigating further, I found the update had transformed the
         | normal gcalc package into a snap, probably just to prove how
         | great snaps could be for desktop apps?
         | 
         | What a bad way to introduce your latest tech canonical. From
         | then on, my opinion of snaps was very negative and I still do
         | everything possible to avoid them. Even if they are technically
         | great or more secure, canonical messed up their introduction
         | and are now stuck pushing a dead horse.
        
           | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
           | That was also my first introduction to snap. Spent a while
           | trying to figure out why the calc app was so slow all of a
           | sudden. Switched to popos eventually.
        
           | pbhjpbhj wrote:
           | My last Kubuntu update (to 22.04) broke because, I think, I'd
           | disabled snaps and the update required snap installs
           | (including Firefox). The update had a "install snap version
           | of Firefox" stage with the only option being OK/Yes ... so
           | install broke. They were so up themselves that they removed
           | the option to cancel snap install despite it not being for
           | essential elements of the OS; I had to kill them installer.
           | 
           | My first brush with fat-packages was Digikam stopping
           | producing .deb packages, it put in so much overhead I
           | couldn't run it on my (admittedly weak) system. The forced
           | use of Firefox snap lost configuration, then failed to work
           | properly (permission problems) ... it's like how the use of
           | file managers via sudo was stopped, seemingly without a
           | proper plan to replace it; make the new tech first, then
           | implement it when it works! It's like going back to Windows,
           | having fragmented app sources and forced updates that wreck
           | everything.
           | 
           | I'm not sure where to move to next, I came to Ubuntu years
           | ago because I no longer wanted to do the config work
           | necessary to run Slackware. Looks like Mint/Arch/Debian are
           | contenders.
        
             | remram wrote:
             | Firefox is the only thing I had problems with, and this was
             | quickly fixed by adding the Mozilla PPA. I haven't run into
             | any snap problems (I apt-get purge'd snapd).
        
             | tannhaeuser wrote:
             | Tested Kubuntu after frustration with gnome 3+ and over a
             | decade on Ubuntu, but was very disappointed. Someone more
             | knowledgable than me strongly recommended KDE Neon (Ubuntu
             | LTS-based distro by KDE themselves) over Kubuntu. Me, I
             | figured I don't need K apps and a full-fledged desktop
             | environment; ended up going back to Mac OS for now.
        
         | zekrioca wrote:
         | I second this. I understand how hard it may be to maintain
         | software these days, and that's the whole point of snap, but
         | the way it is implemented seems broken. It can simply break the
         | whole system, it is like it uses one huge semaphore for all
         | 'transactions' it commits in the 'snap database' (whatever it
         | is) and if the transaction doesn't complete, the whole system
         | stalls. Only recourse is reboot.
         | 
         | Don't get me wrong, snap is like a great conceptual ideal, but
         | it seems to work only for Ubuntu/Canonical developers (or to
         | people with access to them), no one else. It is not well
         | programmed/thought for some reason. Pretty stupid issues, and
         | the read-only fs thing is also weird, how can one test things
         | On-The-Go?
        
           | tannhaeuser wrote:
           | > _I understand how hard it may be to maintain software these
           | days_ ...*
           | 
           | I can't see it being harder than during the forming years
           | with ever-changing libs and tools. Haven't seen a new end-
           | user desktop app on Linux for over a decade either.
        
           | yamtaddle wrote:
           | Last time I poked at Desktop Linux I tried all three of the
           | major solutions for this, and the only one I could tolerate
           | was AppImage, but its ecosystem seemed a bit weak and its
           | official (I think?) site & repo were... not confidence-
           | inspiring.
        
         | remram wrote:
         | I always uninstall snapd first thing, as well as GNOME (I use
         | KDE but the Kubuntu 22.04 installer crashes if using full-disk
         | encryption). Apart from Firefox, for which I had to enable the
         | Mozilla PPA, I haven't really run into anything where I was
         | required to use snap.
        
         | Ptchd wrote:
        
         | rpdillon wrote:
         | I strongly recommend Pop!_OS as a great solution for 'snapless
         | Ubuntu '. I buy System76 machines with it, but also install it
         | on a bunch of my other non-System76 machines. The whole family
         | uses it.
        
         | pizza234 wrote:
         | I'm a "power" Ubuntu user, strongly anti-snap, but Ubuntu
         | doesn't force users to use snaps.
         | 
         | 22.04 has been very invasive by defaulting Firefox to a snap
         | (there is still an alternative though, which is easy and well
         | known, but still), but the repositories are still there in
         | apt/deb format, with all the usual (thousands of) programs.
         | 
         | There may be a few exceptions, but they're very likely programs
         | that have never been in the standard repositories; Subsync is
         | an example. This is a decisions of the developers more than
         | Ubuntu.
         | 
         | I can see another case being programs whose developers did not
         | want to update dependencies, but I've never found such case.
         | 
         | That said, I'm definitely afraid of a real push of snaps,
         | although I'm not sure if Ubuntu itself will be involved more.
         | At the very end, containerized packaging programs take space,
         | and there's only so much that a distribution can provide
         | (before enraging users).
        
         | registeredcorn wrote:
         | I'm interested to know: What made you choose Arch over Fedora?
         | 
         | I had a somewhat similar experience to you and tried Fedora
         | first and it works well. Fedora seems to follow the same "just
         | work" direction that Ubuntu aimed/aims for, minus some aspects
         | I wasn't a fan of. Since Fedora worked for me, I never bothered
         | checking out any other distributions. Was there a big draw to
         | Arch over some of the others, or was it just the first one you
         | tried out and stuck with?
        
           | dwaite wrote:
           | Speaking for myself - Red Hat's package manager cratered on
           | an upgrade in the past (early 2000s) when it ran out of user
           | space, and my investigation was that I hit a pretty core
           | issue with the package manager design itself.
           | 
           | Since it isn't something where I can easily test if the
           | problem still exists, I just avoided RPM completely. That
           | means I have a knowledge and learning benefit in using other
           | systems, and even in learning new (simpler) systems over
           | investing in Fedora.
           | 
           | The split between Fedora and RHEL is also not IMHO as clearly
           | advertised as with other distributions, so I do worry that I
           | will hit a very expensive support wall that might also
           | require me to switch distributions.
        
         | jrsj wrote:
         | I've been using EndeavourOS lately. It's less of a distinct
         | distro and more a really convenient Arch installer to get to a
         | usable system quickly. And without all the extra BS of Manjaro
         | -- once you've installed it, you're basically just running
         | Arch. It installs packages directly from Arch, etc.
        
         | mike256 wrote:
         | I switched to Debian. Still able to use most of the debs but
         | without those Snaps.
        
           | 6c696e7578 wrote:
           | Debian for everything.
        
         | gtirloni wrote:
         | I think you could have a very polished desktop with Fedora and
         | flatkpaks (no daemon) without much work, but I'm glad Arch is
         | working for you.
        
         | abvavgjeremy wrote:
         | Same, but I went with Debian as I wanted to stay in the .deb
         | world.
        
           | aliqot wrote:
           | Let me start by saying Debian rolling release is the truth.
           | 
           | That being said, I worry about the archaic community and
           | contributor-tooling behind debian to be a barrier that will
           | lead to its demise though. Makes me sad, but it is what it
           | is. We are all getting old, and to us this interface looks
           | normal, but to new people and those making the apps that the
           | kids depend on, it looks like a shitshow of antiquated code.
           | 
           | Nobody wants to interact with savannah, it's ugly, move those
           | projects somewhere else.
           | 
           | Nobody wants to use mailing lists or byzantine social
           | arrangements through IRC just to get their package submitted.
           | 
           | I've got to be real with you, not a lot of people give a shit
           | about 'free' beyond price either. Make non-free the default
           | and put 'free-only' as the apt option. I love free software
           | and it hurts me to say it, but there's a reason why AUR is
           | killing the game right now. It's easy to use, easy to enter,
           | easy to see people using your code in a mainstream OS without
           | having to opine to holy neckbeards for the mercy to allow
           | your package to be published.
           | 
           | Debian is a great OS, and I'd happily use it for the rest of
           | my life if given the choice, but reality is staring me in the
           | face that this won't last in its current form, and its
           | current form won't be maintained if anything changes. It's a
           | catch-22.
        
             | massysett wrote:
             | I look at all the distros Debian has outlasted and when
             | people say Debian won't last I just bust out laughing.
             | 
             | Those holy neckbeards are doing a great job maintaining
             | this OS and it's got quite enough packages.
        
             | pmontra wrote:
             | AUR? Is that Arch User Repository (just googled it up) or
             | something else?
        
             | brnt wrote:
             | I've also heard criticism of .deb being much more
             | cumbersome than .rpm. Fedora is not my first choice, Debian
             | is, but they are more new-dev friendly.
             | 
             | Maybe Debian needs to port itself to use rpms and Fedora
             | tooling.
        
               | yakubin wrote:
               | Debs are very easy to make and their structure is easy to
               | understand for anyone who's been using Linux for at least
               | a couple months. They're just tarballs with a couple
               | special text files. What's hard is Debian's official
               | tools to make debs, which are geared towards people who
               | want to become maintainers of packages in official Debian
               | repos. If you don't aim to become one, there are third-
               | party tools which make it easy, such as cargo-deb or
               | holo-build. If you don't want to use them, you may also
               | even write a shell script which will produce a good
               | package. Just use lintian to double-check whether
               | everything is alright.
               | 
               | RPM on the other hand is an over-engineered mess:
               | <https://xyrillian.de/thoughts/posts/argh-pm.html>.
               | Tangentially, YUM and DNF were the slowest package
               | managers I've ever used. They're a real pain.
        
               | aliqot wrote:
               | Making the package generally isn't very difficult in
               | comparison to flatpak, appimage, rpm. The problem is the
               | old dusty path to getting a mentor/sponsor for your
               | little insignificant utility to get introduced into the
               | repos. Every doc/page you see will have swaths of
               | (sometimes old) information that outlines endless
               | procedure and arcane incantations required to find
               | someone who may be online and not idle, who might just
               | vouch for you... or they might endlessly critique your
               | code and license.
               | 
               | This whole process worked great back in the day, but now
               | the kids will just go somewhere else or release outside
               | of repositories.
               | 
               | I know Ubuntu loves the smell of their own codes, but
               | part of me thinks PPA was Canonical's way to address how
               | difficult and crusty the process to get software into
               | Debian is. To this day if you can get in Debian repos,
               | Ubuntu will include you in theirs 'for free'.
               | 
               | I feel so bad saying this.. Debian was supposed to be The
               | One, imo. I've been at this linux thing since the mid
               | 90s, I could not have predicted the current state of
               | things decades ago. It truly disappoints me that things
               | have gone this wrong with modern Linux, but I can't say
               | it had a chance to play out any other way. You see the
               | same with cryptocurrency (gasp!) where in order to
               | achieve legitimacy in the eyes of the opposition a novel
               | industry sought to emulate the legacy systems enough to
               | be familiar and charm the opposing users, but ended up
               | gaining users sold on that dream who lo and behold
               | demanded an effigy to their old systems. We brought this
               | on ourselves.
               | 
               | Now we have Ubuntu aiming to be the new Microsoft at an
               | org level, aesthetically emulating MacOS at a UI level,
               | and meanwhile pretending to be a crossplatform user
               | experience perfect for phone and desktop. I call
               | bullshit. Ubuntu took the dark path after 10.04 and 10.10
               | when Ubuntu Netbook Remix first reared its ugly head.
               | Someone misunderstood the instructions, fed it after
               | midnight, and now it's achieved its final form- Unity.
               | 
               | This is 100% our fault, my generations fault. We didn't
               | keep with the times and I don't see that changing fast
               | enough.
        
             | nsteel wrote:
             | > Make non-free the default
             | 
             | Didn't they just vote to do this?
        
               | ixtenu wrote:
               | No, the recent change [0] was to add non-free firmware to
               | the official installer (instead of relegating it to a
               | separate unofficial installer). GP, however, was talking
               | about the apt repository: the non-free apt repository is
               | disabled by default. This hasn't changed and is unlikely
               | to ever change. The non-free apt repository be enabled
               | via a trivial /etc/apt/sources.list edit.
               | 
               | [0]: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Debian-Non-Free-
               | Firmware-Resul...
        
         | bxparks wrote:
         | Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu but does not use snap. Doing "a
         | lot more work" to install an OS does not sound appealing.
        
           | pxeboot wrote:
           | Installing Arch with the cli installer [1] is pretty
           | straightforward these days. It only becomes a lot more work
           | if you have very specific preferences on partition layouts,
           | filesystems and bootloaders. In my experience, changing these
           | things on Ubuntu was even more difficult and less documented.
           | 
           | [1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/archinstall
        
             | mkl wrote:
             | I haven't tried Arch, but in my experience changing those
             | things in Ubuntu setup is simple and can be done in the GUI
             | installer - I do it every fresh install. I haven't tried
             | changing the bootloader; haven't had the need to.
        
           | Nullabillity wrote:
           | As Ubuntu gradually snapifies more and more stuff, Mint is
           | either going to start falling behind or have to redo Ubuntu's
           | packages (reducing any benefits of the Ubuntu heritage...).
           | 
           | Mint might be an OK stopgap, but I wouldn't call it a long-
           | term solution to Ubuntu's snap infestation. Just like you
           | won't get a good OS by playing whack-a-mole with the various
           | workarounds you have to do to avoid Windows' latest user-
           | hostile bullshit.
        
             | opan wrote:
             | Mint also has a Debian Edition, and it could just become
             | the main one.
        
             | pantalaimon wrote:
             | Ubuntu still gets most packages from Debian, so as long as
             | they don't switch to Snap, everything should be fine.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | Mint is preconfigured Ubuntu that avoids a few user-hostile
           | choices. Techies talking about choosing a Linux seem to
           | careen between Ubuntu/Mint dead-simple consumer stuff and
           | then the other way to Arch, when they decide that they're too
           | _expert_ for Ubuntu (then to Macs, after they have one _very
           | rough day_ with Arch.) Debian is nice, and simple. Takes a
           | little bit of configuring to taste, but configuring the next
           | Debian how you like isn 't going to be much different that
           | configuring the last Debian how you liked. Keep a text file
           | that reminds you of any weird config changes you make and
           | why.
           | 
           | It also upgrades in place nicely. Excellent distro for Ubuntu
           | and Mint to base themselves in.
        
           | nagyf wrote:
           | Yeah, setting up arch for the first time takes time. For
           | newbie users it is definitely not appealing process, and also
           | I would not recommend it. It's not a long process, but you do
           | everything yourself and all this in the terminal (no GUI
           | installer).
           | 
           | I learned a lot about linux when I decided to try Arch. And
           | as OP, I also never looked back :)
        
             | rgoulter wrote:
             | My experience with Arch (which I tried after I'd used Linux
             | Mint) was that for the first few weeks I was constantly
             | consulting the Arch Linux Wiki to get anything done. -- I
             | mean, yes, the emphasis is on "learned a lot".
             | 
             | The Arch Linux Wiki is a fantastic resource.
        
               | bombcar wrote:
               | Installing Arch (or even Gentoo) is worth doing at least
               | once just to learn a bunch about how the parts work
               | together.
               | 
               | Heck, even just reading the installation guide gives you
               | a better understanding of how a Linux machine operates.
        
         | krn wrote:
         | > Swapped to Arch and haven't looked back yet, Arch took me a
         | lot more work to get set up but once it was it's been pretty
         | invisible, which is how I like my OS to be.
         | 
         | I think that Fedora Workstation[1] is a #1 alternative to
         | Ubuntu in terms of smoothness and ease of use. And if .deb is a
         | requirement - then simply Debian.
         | 
         | [1] https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/
        
           | pantalaimon wrote:
           | eh Fedora requires many additional steps to get hardware
           | accelerated video decoding or proprietary drivers working.
           | 
           | With Ubuntu it's all out of the box.
        
             | timemct wrote:
             | Nobara Project[1] helps with this. It is somewhat gaming-
             | on-linux focused, but for some, like myself, that's a win.
             | I use it on both my desktop (Intel CPU, AMD GPU) and my
             | Thinkpad T480: works great on both.
             | 
             | [1] https://nobaraproject.org
        
             | brnt wrote:
             | Seconded. Fedora is very much NOT an all-ready-out-of-the-
             | box experience, unless you are a FLOSS dev.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | You don't need to be a developer, the average computer
               | enthusiast is capable of googling the matter figuring it
               | out. It may not be appropriate for the "colloquial
               | grandmother" sort of user, but you certainly don't need
               | to be a computer programmer to figure it out. There's a
               | lot of ground in-between those.
               | 
               | My dad is a retired accountant and a computer enthusiast
               | since the 80s. Never a programmer, but he does this kind
               | of stuff. Has managed his own linux installations for
               | about 15 years.
        
               | brnt wrote:
               | Googling =\= ootb.
        
               | MichaelCollins wrote:
               | Able to google =\= FLOSS dev
        
               | Mikeb85 wrote:
               | > Fedora is very much NOT an all-ready-out-of-the-box
               | experience, unless you are a FLOSS dev.
               | 
               | Nah it's pretty close if you have an integrated Intel or
               | AMD system, you really don't need closed-source drivers
               | for much except Nvidia these days. Chrome is in the non-
               | free Fedora repositories (or can be installed easily from
               | the website with an .rpm) and that's all most normal
               | users need.
        
               | brnt wrote:
               | Plus codecs, plus font rendering, plus cutting edge being
               | too cutting edge sometimes.
               | 
               | Like I said, FLOSS devs don't rely on closed blobs so
               | they don't have this problem.
        
               | Mikeb85 wrote:
               | > codecs
               | 
               | Most websites people care about use open codecs these
               | days (Google and Netflix use VP9 and AV1, both are open
               | and royalty-free).
               | 
               | Never had an issue with font rendering. And cutting edge
               | being too cutting edge might be an issue with some dev
               | things but having up to date Gnome and apps is fine.
        
               | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
               | Do they stroll restrict nonfree audio/video codecs?
               | 
               | I would use fedora, but I want my repository set limited
               | to trusted sources only. Core repositories are RedHat
               | endorsed, afaict the user managed ones are not.
               | 
               | I want the ability to say that packages are from
               | maintainers that are well trusted in a court of law. I
               | cannot do that with fedora due to this, Ubuntu seems to
               | be my only solution and it's rapidly becoming unusable (I
               | don't hate snap, but it's broken my workflow).
        
           | Kwpolska wrote:
           | Another good alternative could be openSUSE:
           | https://www.opensuse.org/ - also pretty smooth, with user-
           | friendly configuration tools, and no snap nonsense. WSL users
           | might also be interested in using that for their distro
           | instead of Ubuntu.
        
             | tesseract2 wrote:
             | I used to use opensuse around 2010, and had very pleasant
             | experience with it. Things just worked, and their Yast tool
             | was very handy. I used to joke that opensuse is the
             | Mercedes of linux distro :).
             | 
             | I am wondering why it isn't more popular. Is there any
             | sentiment/experience people would like to share about this
             | distro?
        
               | stinkytaco wrote:
               | It's the second biggest Linux company behind Redhat, so I
               | think it's reasonably popular. It's also been a while
               | since I used it, but I'll also point out that it's
               | developed primarily in Germany, so it's entirely possible
               | it's just not as popular in the English speaking
               | community.
               | 
               | However, the licensing agreement with Microsoft put many
               | people in the open source community off, so I think
               | that's contributed to its decline among hobby users.
        
               | Kwpolska wrote:
               | Ubuntu does a pretty good job marketing-wise, many people
               | start they journey with Ubuntu and never look for other
               | distros. Or on the other hand, they end up on
               | advanced/continuous-maintenance distros like Arch Linux.
        
               | ghostpepper wrote:
               | Do you really think 'continuous maintenance' is an
               | appropriate category for Arch? That hasn't been my
               | experience.
        
               | Kwpolska wrote:
               | If you go to an Arch community and you say you haven't
               | updated your system in a month, they will be mad.
        
           | philliphaydon wrote:
           | I went to flavours of Ubuntu (Pop/Mint) to Manjaro, to
           | Fedora.
           | 
           | I love fedora, it just works. I've had 1 issue so far, NVidia
           | GPU on Dell XPS 15. Had to disable noveau and its rock solid.
        
             | RScholar wrote:
             | Kind of creepy, but you just described, step for step, how
             | I ended up running Fedora's KDE Spin on all my boxes over
             | the past year. I really wanted to like Manjaro, I mean the
             | AUR is incredible and their visual design even uses all my
             | favorite colors, but despite my best efforts it felt alien
             | to me in a way I can't well articulate.
             | 
             | Now enter Fedora for the past 4-5 months and I have to say
             | I'm rather impressed. In particular, their package archives
             | seem to keep current with a lot of the software I rely on
             | far better than Debian/Ubuntu. Using dnf feels much more
             | familiar than pacman ever did, and as of now I feel like my
             | search for a daily driver has ended. I would recommend
             | anyone else that's not happy with the experience of Ubuntu
             | anymore to do likewise and see how Fedora feels in its
             | place.
        
         | bitL wrote:
         | My main gripe with Snap was the loss of configuration whenever
         | it decided to update a package on its own. Imagine running
         | OwnCloud as a Snap and losing all metadata when OwnCloud
         | updated itself for some reason.
        
         | WirelessGigabit wrote:
         | Is there an easy way to get Arch on WSL?
        
         | tyingq wrote:
         | Snap has also ruined Ubuntu for me, and I've moved to Debian
         | and/or Alpine depending on the use case.
        
         | shinjitsu wrote:
         | I've loved ubuntu for a while as well, but snaps are making me
         | want something new - any suggestions for a "I'm middle aged
         | with children so I need an it just works distro"?
        
           | nehal3m wrote:
           | I was in the same boat and switched to Fedora 6 months ago on
           | desktop and laptop, the Cinnamon spin. It gets out of the way
           | and up until now has just worked. No hardware issues except
           | for the fingerprint reader.
        
           | mikae1 wrote:
           | _> any suggestions for a  "I'm middle aged with children so I
           | need an it just works distro"?_
           | 
           | The latest and greatest recommendation is now openSUSE
           | Tumbleweed (rolling yet stable). Fedora was the
           | recommendation of 2021. Manjaro was the recommendation of
           | 2020. Try one and see if it works on your hardware. If not,
           | pick the next one. :)
        
         | wooque wrote:
         | I don't why people make so much fuss about snap. Just purge
         | snap and stop complaining.
         | 
         | I did this when I run Ubuntu.
         | 
         | Ubuntu still is offers pretty polished and reliable OS that is
         | easy to install and has most third-party support.
        
           | psanford wrote:
           | Because more and more things are only packaged as snaps.
        
             | wooque wrote:
             | Only Firefox is shipped as snap on default install.
             | 
             | But Firefox packaged by Ubuntu was always gimped as they
             | didn't enable certain optimizations like PGO/LTO so
             | official tar.gz from Mozilla was superior anyway. (They
             | fixed this recently for snap). I think it's similar for
             | Chromium.
             | 
             | So I didn't use snaps and I never been in situation that I
             | needed to use snap.
        
               | psanford wrote:
               | Firefox isn't the only thing that has been switched off
               | .deb and to a snap. LXD, for example, has been shipping
               | as a only a snap for years.
               | 
               | But even if it were only firefox, telling people they
               | should download tarballs instead of having their distro
               | ship packages is really missing the point.
        
           | yakubin wrote:
           | The problem is when you instruct a colleague to check
           | something using nmap, they install nmap using snap and are
           | surprised it doesn't work, while you are left wondering what
           | the hell is wrong with their computer, oblivious to the
           | footgun Canonical put into their distro; until you remember
           | again after a decade+ of not using Ubuntu. Canonical
           | shouldn't push out broken things like that. It's supposed to
           | be a distro where stuff Just Works(TM).
        
         | jonesnc wrote:
         | I'm on Ubuntu Server 22.04, and I've never had to use Snap. Is
         | it exclusively a Desktop thing?
        
           | pmontra wrote:
           | The letsencrypt certbot package has been a snap for a long
           | time. It's their recommended choice even on Debian
           | https://certbot.eff.org/
        
             | Andys wrote:
             | Its a good opportunity to switch out certbot for something
             | else, there are some great alternative options on github
        
           | garblegarble wrote:
           | No some server packages are snaps -- e.g. lxd
        
             | e12e wrote:
             | Yeah, lxd was the first one I noticed (with the implication
             | that it's not likely to work on eg Debian - but rather be
             | canonical-only thing).
             | 
             | I see juju is recommended to be installed via snap, and
             | landscape is recommended to install via juju:
             | 
             | https://juju.is/docs/olm/installing-juju
             | 
             | https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/landscape-beta-juju-
             | installat...
             | 
             | https://ubuntu.com/blog/landscape-beta-test-the-landscape-
             | se...
        
         | simion314 wrote:
         | I have a ubuntu server, I needed an app that is not in the
         | repos, I found a snap of it, it worked great (it is a CLI app),
         | so there are good use cases for this tech, it needs probably
         | more optimizations but hopefully it does not get killed, some
         | competition is good.
         | 
         | Btw I used Arch , when I had time and tinkering with software
         | was still pleasurable( I could do a full dual boot install
         | without any documentation in one hour but this kind of stuff
         | displease me this days)
        
         | compsciphd wrote:
         | I used to defend snap with the idea that it makes sense for
         | some apps, i.e. "firefox" where updating firefox while its
         | running is bad news.
         | 
         | Except, snap can't update applications while they are running!
         | 
         | i.e. try to do a snap refresh while firefox is running, nothing
         | to update, because its running, quit it wait for all processes
         | to die and then refresh, and it will update and cause you to
         | wait 30-60s while it does it, and then you can restart firefox.
         | 
         | This has to be one of the most idiotic design decision ever
         | made by a containerized application system showing the
         | designers don't understand containerization at all.
         | 
         | one of the primary points of containerization is the ability to
         | have multiple copies of an application running in parallel
         | using different "application images". One should be able to
         | upgrade (i.e. install a new image in parallel to the old one)
         | without disrupting existing execution environments.
         | 
         | Basically all firefox has to do is
         | 
         | 1) if a container is running for the current user, execute
         | firefox in its context
         | 
         | 2) if no container is running for the current user, create a
         | new container
         | 
         | 3) every so often, garbage collect old images that don't have
         | containers running for them.
         | 
         | these concepts are so simple, even docker basically does it!
         | 
         | and that's my rant for the day.
        
           | Jenk wrote:
           | Polite FYI:
           | 
           | When a statement has many examples it is correct to use
           | "e.g.," which is an abbreviation of _exempli gratia_, which
           | in turn is Latin for "for example." For example: There are
           | many emotions a person may feel, e.g., happiness.
           | 
           | When a statement has only one logical conclusion it is
           | correct to use "i.e.," which is the abbreviation of _id est_
           | which in turn is Latin for "that is." For example: It was the
           | same colour as a clear summer's day sky, i.e., blue.
        
             | teekert wrote:
             | Til, thanx.
        
             | elgenie wrote:
             | My mnemonic is "i.e." = "in essence" and "e.g." = "example
             | given". The real phrases being abbreviated are, of course,
             | the Latin ones.
        
           | sumitgt wrote:
           | Agreed!
           | 
           | Snap can't even update snap-store because it is running in
           | the background.
           | 
           | There is no way for a non-tech savvy person to even figure
           | out how to get past that error.
        
           | znpy wrote:
           | in the specific case of firefox, two different instances of
           | firefox (no matter their version) cannot both use the same
           | firefox profile at the same time (i tried).
           | 
           | You either have to ask the user to restart firefox (that
           | would be the sane choice) or corrupt user data.
           | 
           | But i agree that snap sucks. Snap sucks particularly bad
           | because they also push it where it's not only unnecessary but
           | also detrimental to the user experience.
           | 
           | Simple dumb example: i had gnome-calculator in my toolbar. I
           | sometimes need to make basic calculations, it's easy and I
           | keep it handy. I realized that gnome-calculator (a 500k
           | binary) was taking 30 fcking seconds to appear. Turns out it
           | was "updated" to a snap, and now launching it meant for stuff
           | to be mounted around and for snap to do whatever it wanted
           | with my time.
        
           | curt15 wrote:
           | Flatpak updates work pretty much the same way. The new
           | version is installed into a parallel directory and takes
           | effect the next time the application is restarted.
        
             | tetha wrote:
             | So I'm not nuts. My work laptop recently changed from
             | Fedora using flatpak to Ubuntu using snap and with flatpak,
             | I'd get a couple notifications "Hey, XYZ was updated" and
             | on the next reboot, it was new. With snap, I have to
             | shutdown the application, update it in a console and
             | relaunch it. Meh.
        
           | binwiederhier wrote:
           | I've been on Ubuntu 22.04 for a few weeks now, and every now
           | and then Firefox will create a popup notification that says
           | "Firefox needs to be closed to update (12 days left)". When I
           | close it and re-open, Firefox is still not updated. Even when
           | I go to the Software Center and update all apps, it
           | apparently doesn't update snaps.
           | 
           | I'm not entirely sure if Firefox is updateable via the UI.
           | It's truly awful; and that's coming from an Ubuntu lover.
        
             | hellcow wrote:
             | Yup, you need to shutdown firefox, open a terminal, run
             | 'sudo snap refresh', wait for it to complete, then re-open
             | firefox.
             | 
             | Agreed that the process sucks :)
        
               | PenguinCoder wrote:
               | Does running a standard `apt update/upgrade` update the
               | snap packages, even it they're in use?
        
               | Avshalom wrote:
               | apt doesn't touch snaps at all afaict
        
             | mrighele wrote:
             | Ubuntu 22.04, got fed up with snap firefox, removed it and
             | installed it from a ppa, pinning appropriately
             | 
             | I still get notifications that to update the snap ai need
             | to close firefox, so I wonder what is really happening...
        
               | huggingmouth wrote:
               | I uninstalled the snap version and installed the flatpak
               | one. No more lying pop-ups (I close firefox but it never
               | updates when I reopen it).
               | 
               | Bonus, I don't need to be root to update it!
        
           | thomaslord wrote:
           | Firefox is a particularly interesting case because it has a
           | bunch of issues that only exist when it's installed via snap.
           | I just recently ripped out the default snap version and
           | installed via the official PPA, and Firefox seems to be
           | running much smoother now.
           | 
           | For basically any app I use that's installed via snap, I
           | eventually run into a gamebreaking issue and have to remove
           | the snap version and find a normal .deb to install from.
           | Whether it's customization issues (setting up custom fonts in
           | VS Code didn't work) or stability issues (the tab bar in
           | Firefox windows freezing up), there always seems to be some
           | kind of problem
        
             | echelon wrote:
             | Snap makes sense, but it'll take time for the dust to
             | settle. Just like Unity / Wayland.
             | 
             | Applications like Firefox, IntelliJ, Chromium, etc.
             | shouldn't be tied to system dependencies managed by apt.
             | They should be entirely monolithic and hermetic.
             | 
             | Long term this deb vs snap approach will make sense and be
             | good for Desktop Linux.
        
               | HideousKojima wrote:
               | If you say so, but I don't see why it should be forced on
               | Ubuntu users by Canonical until then.
        
               | rbanffy wrote:
               | It's just 6 or 7 years. Give them time.
        
               | throwup wrote:
               | > it'll take time for the dust to settle. Just like Unity
               | / Wayland
               | 
               | There's a particular irony to this statement. Before
               | adopting Wayland, Canonical tried to do their own thing
               | with Mir[1]. Years later they gave up and reluctantly
               | adopted Wayland. Their investment in Snap rhymes with
               | this. Snap is an inferior competitor to Flatpak, and in
               | the end it's likely the dust will settle for Snap the
               | same way it did for Mir--in the dirt.
               | 
               | Canoncial as an organization has some serious NIH
               | syndrome and they are putting "Linux on the Desktop"
               | through a lot of unnecessary pain.
               | 
               | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_(software)
        
               | asdajksah2123 wrote:
               | I don't think Snap is an inferior solution, as much as
               | Canonical is trying to put Snap where it doesn't belong.
               | 
               | AFAICT, Snap is a pretty good solution for server side
               | apps. This is pure speculation (and I don't even know if
               | the timelines line up), but I suspect Canonical developed
               | Snap for server apps, but something made it economically
               | non viable (maybe the popularity of Docker?) and so they
               | now needed to generate money through it some other way
               | and they decided to do it by using it as a workstation
               | app distribution mechanism, and by locking it down for
               | enterprise.
        
               | seiferteric wrote:
               | Actually brings up a good question of why can't dpkg/.deb
               | just support having multiple library versions? My
               | understanding is that it is not support, but if it was,
               | then couldn't that obviate the need for snap?
        
               | bayindirh wrote:
               | Many people are unaware that "so naming" [0] solves
               | multiple versions of the same library problem.
               | 
               | My Debian installation regularly has two or three
               | versions of the same library (e.g. libx264) installed
               | while packages update and start to use newer versions of
               | the same library.
               | 
               | [0]: https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-
               | librarie...
        
               | rbanffy wrote:
               | > but it'll take time for the dust to settle.
               | 
               | I remember seeing it demoed at Canonical in 2015 or so.
               | It's been 7 years. How much longer should we wait?
        
               | theamk wrote:
               | Is snap enough of improvent over deb to replace it?
               | Sometimes yes.
               | 
               | Is snap enough of improvement of Flakpak to ignore
               | community standard and deal witb all the user hostile
               | craziness like non-removable updater? No way.
               | 
               | I hope it goes the way of the Mir and upstart - replaced
               | with a competitor and silently removed.
        
               | donio wrote:
               | > Snap makes sense, but it'll take time for the dust to
               | settle. Just like Unity / Wayland.
               | 
               | That comparison is not helping to sell it.
        
               | bayindirh wrote:
               | > Snap makes sense...
               | 
               | No. When we have flatpak and appimage, snap makes zero
               | sense. I just see it as a way to implement a centralized
               | walled garden into the OS, and don't install Ubuntu
               | systems even in VMs for five minute test drives.
               | 
               | The way Canonical rolled it out is flat out insulting to
               | the free software community and distro culture, IMHO.
               | 
               | It's too late here to write about its technical problems,
               | so I'll leave it at that.
        
               | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
               | I don't disagree but that won't change the fact that snap
               | completely broke my Firefox workflow, and doesn't
               | gracefully allow me to restart Firefox (rather
               | inconsistently have tabs crash unexpectedly).
               | 
               | Snap is immature, and not ready for production
               | deployment. The way Ubuntu/parent company have pushed
               | snap has been damaging to its image.
        
           | cgriswald wrote:
           | > i.e. try to do a snap refresh while firefox is running,
           | nothing to update, because its running, quit it wait for all
           | processes to die and then refresh, and it will update and
           | cause you to wait 30-60s while it does it, and then you can
           | restart firefox.
           | 
           | Oh, it's worse than that. When there is an update available
           | but firefox is running you get:
           | 
           | > % snap refresh
           | 
           | > All snaps up to date.
           | 
           | It doesn't even _tell you_ there is an update and that you
           | need to close firefox to get it. In fact, it tells you there
           | isn 't one.
        
             | AaronFriel wrote:
             | This seems broken, full stop.
             | 
             | Can Firefox itself, when installed via Snap, notify the
             | user that it needs security updates? If so, can users
             | effectively do that, or do they have to know this
             | incantation of closing, waiting, running a terminal
             | command, and restarting?
        
               | rbanffy wrote:
               | That's a step backwards. The whole point of package
               | managers is that the system manages software updates and
               | the software itself can be completely oblivious to that.
               | 
               | Snap done properly it'd download and install the new
               | version, point launchers to that and prompt the user to
               | restart running snaps.
        
           | eptcyka wrote:
           | > one of the primary points of containerization is the
           | ability to have multiple copies of an application running in
           | parallel using different "application images". One should be
           | able to upgrade (i.e. install a new image in parallel to the
           | old one) without disrupting existing execution environments.
           | 
           | Would you like to run a completely new Firefox with a
           | completely new profile whenever you update it? You do know
           | that you can't use the same profile even with the same
           | version of Firefox in two separate Firefox instances
           | concurrently, right? If the updater was aware of snap and
           | snap aware of the application it's updating, you could have a
           | graceful update procedure that serializes the current state
           | and reloads the new container, but that's a lot of hoops to
           | jump through, and the jumping must be coordinated between
           | multiple stakeholders.
        
             | theamk wrote:
             | literally the first point of parent post was:
             | 
             | > if a container is running for the current user, execute
             | firefox in its context
             | 
             | So there is no need for snap to fancy serialization, just
             | have new and old firefox ready, and keep using old one
             | while it has running processeses. And if the old one exits
             | for any reason, start new one instead.
             | 
             | That's all snap has to do! But it does not, because it
             | really likes to make strange texhnical decisions for some
             | reason.
             | 
             | (For "coordination", snap could make a common file in old
             | app dir like "bin/new_version_availablec, and if firefox
             | detects it, it shows that "your browser needs to be
             | updated" button. I would not be surprised if something like
             | this already exists in firefox. But I doubt snap would use
             | this approach because it is not complex enough for it :) )
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | They're not asking for multiple uses of the same profile.
             | Assuming one profile, then the old image would keep being
             | used until firefox shuts down entirely, and once that
             | happens the new image would be used the next time firefox
             | is opened.
             | 
             | You don't need to serialize or reload anything.
        
             | amluto wrote:
             | No, but the issue here seems to be a problem with the
             | underlying snap system, not with the concept. It should be
             | possible to have multiple containers that, when run, access
             | the _same_ persistent data. So the workflow would be:
             | 
             | 1. Install and start Firefox. There is one container and
             | one directory full of profiles.
             | 
             | 2. Start the upgrade. This creates a second Firefox
             | installation (container) sharing the same profile
             | directory.
             | 
             | 3. Try to run Firefox without quitting the old one. Does
             | nothing because the runtime is smart enough to know that
             | the old one is running. Maybe pop up a message suggesting
             | restarting Firefox.
             | 
             | 4. Quit Firefox. Start it again. The new one runs. All the
             | data is still there.
             | 
             | 5. The old installation goes away.
             | 
             | The runtime has plenty of flexibility in how to make this
             | work. There could be multiple containers. There could be
             | one container with multiple parallel versions. There could
             | be one container with a staged upgrade that can swap in
             | essentially instantaneously once the container is idle
             | (although this may fall apart on multi-user systems or
             | where the containerized program regularly has multiple
             | running copies of itself at once, e.g. a program like
             | bash).
             | 
             | But the fact that snap apparently has trouble with this
             | seems a bit embarrassing.
        
               | GauntletWizard wrote:
               | And snapd has all of the information it needs to do all
               | of this. "Is Firefox Running?" is a tricky question in a
               | traditional package install, because there's a number of
               | ways you can launch a program and "ps |grep firefox"
               | isn't quite right. But that's not the case for snapd! It
               | is the executor and all launches to Firefox have to pass
               | through it; If you launch Firefox while it's running and
               | there's an update queued, it should be able to pass that
               | on to the old version, while still being able to handle
               | "This program is exiting and has an update queued, so
               | let's update it now".
               | 
               | Every critical piece of information is available to
               | Snapd, and yet, they have chosen the wrong and broken
               | implementation.
        
             | dtx1 wrote:
             | Almost like copy on write hasnt been invented yet. Just
             | copy the profile on creation of a new instance
        
           | noasaservice wrote:
           | > I used to defend snap with the idea that it makes sense for
           | some apps, i.e. "firefox" where updating firefox while its
           | running is bad news.
           | 
           | > Except, snap can't update applications while they are
           | running!
           | 
           | What's worse is the unblockable notifications.
           | 
           | And I just de-snapped my xubuntu 22.04 , and doing so
           | upgraded firefox-snap v113 to their repo v116 ! I mean, I
           | thought the purpose was fully updated. Evidently not.
           | 
           | Snap needs to die in a fire.
           | 
           | https://haydenjames.io/remove-snap-ubuntu-22-04-lts/
        
         | roter wrote:
         | For me it is just Firefox that I don't want in snap form. The
         | Mozilla team still puts out a .deb version via PPA [0]. You
         | should probably also pin to this source so that the snaps don't
         | get installed [1].
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa?field...
         | 
         | [1] https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-
         | firefox-d...
        
           | blacksmith_tb wrote:
           | I agree, and it's a little depressing to have the same "now I
           | have to go fix that" relationship with two OSes, Ubuntu and
           | macOS (I guess if I used Windows more than occasionally it'd
           | three for three). Since I did all that on 22.04, I am a
           | little nervous that it will get clobbered if I upgrade to
           | 22.10...
        
         | sosodev wrote:
         | Maybe you would like Pop!_OS? It's mostly Ubuntu but with a lot
         | of user friendliness considerations like the removal of snap.
        
         | mkurz wrote:
         | Same here. Ubuntu user since the beginning (2004). Switched to
         | Arch half a year ago, will never look back. I don't understand
         | why Ubuntu tries hard to scare away users from what used to be
         | a solid OS with things like Mir, Unity, snap,... Even now the
         | modified Gnome it comes with by default. I don't get it.
        
           | pmontra wrote:
           | I think that they are looking for a way to make money. A snap
           | app store managed by them could be a source of cash. I'm
           | still on 20.04 and maybe I'll switch to Debian or PopOS. I
           | need to find the time to experiment. I'll buy a second SSD
           | and dual boot.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | znpy wrote:
       | After years of ubuntu... I went back to Debian.
       | 
       | For the few packages where I need a newest version I use flatpak.
       | 
       | Ubuntu was basically unusable with their constant push of snap
       | and other dumb solutions looking for a problem.
        
       | Havoc wrote:
       | They could really have held off on announcing it an extra couple
       | hours till it is actually available
        
       | Karupan wrote:
       | Regardless of all the (rightful?) hate towards Ubuntu recently,
       | it's worked great for me. Just last week I had a spare Microsoft
       | surface laptop 1 and wanted to setup a headless server since
       | Raspberry Pi's are ridiculously priced. Ubuntu 20.04 worked
       | flawlessly out of the box whereas the Debian installer couldn't
       | detect the laptop keyboard and I couldn't complete installation
       | (just one USB port).
       | 
       | Also it's just so much easier to find howto's for Ubuntu,
       | especially if it's some weird hardware.
       | 
       | Love Ubuntu for personal use!
        
       | ctoth wrote:
       | I'm not sure precisely why, but when I first saw ads in Apt(8) I
       | decided I wouldn't be using Ubuntu for any more personal
       | projects. On one hand they obviously need to keep the project
       | alive. On the other hand, putting your own ads on top of
       | something that fundamental to the system just felt ...
       | weird/narsty?
       | 
       | Reading state information... Done
       | 
       | Calculating upgrade... Done
       | 
       | Try Ubuntu Pro beta with a free personal subscription on up to 5
       | machines. Learn more at https://ubuntu.com/pro
        
         | 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
         | Jump to Debian. It has always worked towards users' interests,
         | and probably will continue doing that because pretty much all
         | developers are volunteers and are running a democratically
         | driven development process. I never understood why Ubuntu is so
         | popular because it's 99.99% Debian, and only gives you a
         | handful of things on top of that: predictable release schedule
         | (which is a two-edged sword if you think about it), PPAs
         | (same), proprietary drivers out of the box, and 10 years of
         | support if you're willing to pay.
         | 
         | I remember when Mark shipped Ubuntu CDs for free to anyone who
         | requested them. Always wanted to get one, but never did because
         | I was able to obtain Ubuntu ISOs through other means, so it
         | didn't feel like the right thing to do. (Although we were using
         | dial-up up until 2008 or so.) Those times seem to have passed
         | long ago.
        
           | huggingmouth wrote:
           | Made the jump and couldn't be happier. One thing I noticed to
           | keep in mind: Debian doesn't seem to be as proactive nor
           | expansive as ununtu when it comes to security updates. I'm
           | subscribed to both dsa and usn mailing lists and the updates
           | conancal puts out are far more numerous and timely.
           | 
           | Also, debians unattended upgrades packages leaves a lot of
           | packages unupdated by default.
           | 
           | Lastely, ubuntu releases have a well-defined and known life
           | span. You know exacly what date support will end. Not so with
           | Debian.
           | 
           | If you're like me and willing to deal with these
           | shortcomings, then I highly recommend switching to Debian!
        
             | chevdev wrote:
             | I would, if I used desktop Linux. I sort of do on my
             | homelab sort of setup, but I'm specifically using Raspberry
             | Pi OS because, well, my homelab is something like 30
             | raspberry pi's doing various things (yes, I know this isn't
             | a good idea, but that doesn't mean I want to stop doing
             | it).
             | 
             | I only have one laptop, and it's running something a bit
             | more Redmond oriented.
        
           | derefr wrote:
           | (Specific, upstream-provided) PPAs are the main reason I use
           | Ubuntu Server. Given that they're built against Ubuntu's
           | separately-version-sequenced package ecosystem, I can't
           | expect PPAs that install cleanly on Ubuntu to be able to find
           | the same packages required to install cleanly on Debian. If I
           | could, I'd just use Debian and then forcibly add the PPAs as
           | apt sources.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | chevdev wrote:
           | Ubuntu was nice because, when it came out, Debian was several
           | years out of date without having done a release. Ubuntu
           | promised to do smaller, incremental releases and do LTS
           | versions as well which is a promise they have kept. I
           | remember trying Debian and having the choice of installing an
           | old ass version of a program or setting up their leading edge
           | version, which often caused problems with system stability.
           | Ubuntu was a good balance - they had new software versions
           | that worked.
           | 
           | Not only that but for a long time their default gnome
           | configuration worked very well (back when they had the top
           | and bottom panel thing). Debian very much threw you into it
           | and said "Here's Gnome, have fun!" and you had to spend hours
           | on a second computer learning how to install a browser and
           | configure it (and go through multiple iterations of startx
           | failing because your config was not right, because you were
           | learning stuff).
           | 
           | I don't use either any more - most of my linux use is on
           | Raspberry Pi OS, WSL, or in some container or something.
        
           | mort96 wrote:
           | Isn't it still unsupported to upgrade from one stable Debian
           | version to another? I mean I know you can hack your way
           | around it, just change the apt repos to point at the new
           | release, run apt update, upgrade and dist-upgrade, and hope
           | that not too much stuff breaks. But the nice thing about
           | Ubuntu, especially for less technical people, is that the
           | system will just prompt you to update when it's time, and the
           | upgrade process is supported and well-tested.
        
       | encryptluks2 wrote:
       | Everyday is like a new Ubuntu release on Arch Linux and in 8
       | years I've only had to boot into a rescue environment one time
       | and it was due to me using a non-standard configuration.
        
         | chuckSu wrote:
        
         | packetlost wrote:
         | Idk, I've had systemd-resolved eat itself because of an update
         | that added some new required config that I missed when running
         | an update. Very annoying when dealing with headless servers.
         | Arch is _fine_ for laptops, but I would not put anything that I
         | rely on daily on Arch and I _certainly_ wouldn 't want to
         | maintain a _fleet_ of Arch VMs /containers/whatever
        
         | NegativeK wrote:
         | I'm a little unclear about what you're trying to say. Is it
         | that you've had success with rolling releases?
        
         | RedShift1 wrote:
         | Everybody has a story like that about every distro ever
        
           | aliqot wrote:
        
             | BirAdam wrote:
             | Because those aren't distributions... those are independent
             | operating systems that aren't related to Linux in any way.
        
               | aliqot wrote:
               | Say you're sorry.
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | Majestic121 wrote:
         | BTW I use Arch
        
       | hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
       | Semi related snap rant: I installed Firefox by adding a Mozilla
       | repository into apt. Turns out the repository is nightly builds
       | which have strange functional issues. There was no mention of
       | this on the (rather poor) install guides I found on switching.
        
       | g105b wrote:
       | Who benefits from snap?
        
       | sebow wrote:
       | 22.04 LTS is probably gonna be my last go-to linux distro release
       | for workstations and all-around. Going back to fedora after this
       | goes EOL since the "snappy" shit, pro advertisements, and other
       | things haven't stopped. I'm not mad or even annoyed because it
       | fully expected it, but still somewhat disappointed.
        
       | jaywalk wrote:
       | I never knew there was an animal called Kudu. I just knew it from
       | Azure: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-
       | service/resource...
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | rubyist5eva wrote:
       | of course the only comments so far are people complaining that
       | Ubuntu sucks and their $PREFERRED_DISTRO is better
       | 
       | I for one think Steam as a snap is a great idea, and was
       | pleasantly surprised with them taking the feedback about the
       | Firefox snap to heart and actually putting in the work to speed
       | it up.
       | 
       | I was gonna install 22.04.1 tonight (finally got fedup with
       | Windows) but I'm gonna try this tonight instead and definitely
       | give the Steam snap a try. The less I need to boot into Windows
       | to play PC games the better.
       | 
       | Congratulations to the team on another release.
        
         | aliqot wrote:
         | >less I need to boot into Windows to play PC games the better.
         | 
         | Hard to give up smoking with a pack in your pocket.
        
           | rubyist5eva wrote:
           | not gonna get an argument from me there, but I have over 1000
           | steam games
        
             | aliqot wrote:
             | In my opinion, it's probably better to stick with windows
             | until the drawbacks of running windows outweigh the
             | meaningful percentage of those 1000+ games you still play.
        
         | josephcsible wrote:
         | > of course the only comments so far are people complaining
         | that Ubuntu sucks and their $PREFERRED_DISTRO is better
         | 
         | I haven't seen a single comment like that. Distinguish "Ubuntu
         | sucks" from "snaps suck". Also, the comments about alternative
         | distros seem to be along the lines of "these distros are the
         | most similar to Ubuntu except without the snaps."
        
         | silisili wrote:
         | I don't think it's 'my distro is better' as much as it is
         | people who loved ubuntu pissed off in the direction they went
         | with Snaps. At least, that's my personal position.
         | 
         | IMO, snaps have no reason to exist other than NIH. But, if they
         | wanted to do it anyways, fine. But it should have always been
         | opt in, and people could for example try out the Steam snap.
         | Instead they made everything a snap mess that rarely works
         | quickly or predictably .
        
           | gibspaulding wrote:
           | I liked the idea of snaps as something like the AUR.
           | Basically a straightforward way to get un-trusted/closed
           | source software installed without giving some random
           | installer root on my system. Apps like Steam, Spotify,
           | Discord, maybe even Chrome make a lot of sense since they
           | don't really fit into a traditional open source distribution
           | model, but I wish they'd stick with apt for anything open
           | source.
        
             | lostdog wrote:
             | Flatpack already existing, and snap makes programs take 30x
             | as long to run.
        
               | rubyist5eva wrote:
               | can you use Flatpack for command line apps yet?
        
               | jcastro wrote:
               | Flatpak is focused on GUI apps only, for CLI apps you'd
               | use whatever you're used to.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | inetknght wrote:
               | What makes a GUI app worth containerizing and CLI tools
               | not worth containerizing?
        
               | jcastro wrote:
               | > What makes a GUI app worth containerizing and CLI tools
               | not worth containerizing?
               | 
               | Agree 100%, and podman/docker already exist.
               | 
               | The way I do it is to use
               | [Distrobox](https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox) to use
               | whatever distro's userspace has the thing I need (I use
               | either the newer devel version of ubuntu or alpine), so
               | if I need a newer version of a CLI tool I can get that
               | without conflating it with the OS layer. It's a similar
               | workflow to how OSX and Windows WSL do it.
               | 
               | So I'm just using the normal debian packages for
               | everything, except it's in a nice split out container
               | just for my userspace with access to all my data. This is
               | the workflow from Fedora Silverblue, openSUSE's MicroOS
               | and EndlessOS, which kind of forces you into the cloud
               | native mindset, but you can run any distro this way.
        
       | Mikeb85 wrote:
       | The Ubuntu Pro ads and this release have all come at an
       | interesting time...
       | 
       | Fedora and the stock Gnome eco-system are getting better and
       | better... Debian voting to include non-free software. Google is
       | using Debian for things these days, Steam switching to Arch...
       | 
       | For myself, I'm now using OpenSUSE MicroOS (immutable root OS,
       | everything else is containerized with Flatpak or Toolbox/Podman,
       | repos based on Tumbleweed) and it really feels like the future
       | (Fedora Silverblue is very similar). I thought that would be the
       | direction Ubuntu takes but now it feels like Ubuntu is in some
       | weird zone where lots of things are snaps, lots aren't, they're
       | pushing Pro services with ads, it's getting more enterprise-y but
       | they're also pushing containerized Steam, etc...
       | 
       | That being said Ubuntu's always been a good experience so I'm
       | sure it'll be fine but the direction they're taking is rather
       | curious...
        
         | zmk5 wrote:
         | They are definitely going through some growing pains thats for
         | sure.
        
       | harel wrote:
       | For the last year+ I've been thinking of moving from Ubuntu
       | (after 17 years) and into Manjaro (arch). I even have it running
       | on another older laptop and it's great. However, the fear of
       | losing pace, even for a day because an unforeseen problem or
       | missing something stops me. Ubuntu has always (mostly) just
       | worked for me, and I know Manjaro will too but after so many
       | years change is somewhat hard...
        
         | gunapologist99 wrote:
         | I liked Manjaro and Artix, but eventually the package databases
         | somehow got confused and I couldn't upgrade them anymore
         | without deleting files. However, Manjaro especially looks
         | fantastic, and Artix doesn't come with systemd, which is a
         | win..
        
         | codalan wrote:
         | I switched over to Linux Mint recently. There's no way I'm
         | going back to plain old Ubuntu anytime soon.
         | 
         | Cinnamon just works for me, and I still have apt to manage my
         | packages.
         | 
         | It's kind of the logical next step for dissatisfied Ubuntu
         | users.
        
       | ss108 wrote:
       | "It also includes the latest toolchains and applications with a
       | particular focus on the IoT ecosystem."
       | 
       | Dude, the OS can't even handle two monitors half the time...
        
         | xtracto wrote:
         | It's 2022 and you got to go through crazy hoops and loops [1]
         | to use an Nvidia card and an Intel integrated graphics chip in
         | a dual monitor setup. And it is IMPOSSIBLE to do if you are
         | using Nvidia drivers.
         | 
         | Also, I recently tried to configure "touchpad gestures" (3 and
         | 4 finger swipes) and man it was super painful (one method
         | doesn't work (touchegg), the other is archaic and you have to
         | restart the OS to change any settings (libinpu-gestures). Come
         | on... it's 2022.
         | 
         | [1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/593938/how-to-run-both-
         | intel...
        
           | brnt wrote:
           | Tbh, I've used multi monitor setup for at least a decade now
           | without doing anything but plug them in. That's on a variety
           | of GPU manufacturer hardware.
        
           | remram wrote:
           | I'm using 3 monitors on my Ubuntu 22.04, with the nvidia
           | drivers that were setup by the installer. It works fine.
           | 
           | I'm not going for the crazy setup of your link though, where
           | only some monitors should use the accelerated GPU. Not sure
           | why you'd do that?
        
           | Mikeb85 wrote:
           | > It's 2022 and you got to go through crazy hoops and loops
           | [1] to use an Nvidia card and an Intel integrated graphics
           | chip in a dual monitor setup. And it is IMPOSSIBLE to do if
           | you are using Nvidia drivers.
           | 
           | Sounds like an Nvidia problem... In the last decade I've had
           | Intel and AMD laptops, both with integrated graphics, Linux
           | has handled dual monitors just fine for all this time...
        
         | pantalaimon wrote:
         | I'm running 4 monitors without any issue...
        
           | ss108 wrote:
           | My cofounder is as well, on Xubuntu. Meanwhile, I've had
           | multiple issues getting just 2 to work across years of using
           | Ubuntu (there was a good few year span when I didn't have to
           | fiddle with anything and it did just work). Recently, I had a
           | second monitor running with my Ubuntu installation, but one
           | day the monitor stopped working, and the next I couldn't
           | build JS projects without running the command as root (?!).
           | Switched to WSL and it's been great.
        
             | pantalaimon wrote:
             | > next I couldn't build JS projects without running the
             | command as root
             | 
             | I don't see how Ubuntu would be responsible for that,
             | sounds like PEBCAK to me
        
             | mixmastamyk wrote:
             | Run a build command once with sudo and you'll always have
             | to. Until you fix it with chown.
             | 
             | Hardware makes a difference as well as distribution, try
             | live drives until one works well.
        
         | rs_rs_rs_rs_rs wrote:
         | It absolutely can and it sounds to me you're not even than
         | capable of using an easy to use distribution like Ubuntu.
        
           | ss108 wrote:
           | I used Ubuntu for a number of years but got tired of shit
           | periodically breaking, having to go through ridiculous hoops
           | to set things up, etc. If wanting an OS that isn't a chore to
           | maintain because I am busy and don't want to be an OS
           | hobbyist, then color me "incapable".
        
       | stabbles wrote:
       | I upgraded from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04 recently, and am
       | experiencing issues where Firefox feels sluggish and X hangs for
       | a second when I type in the terminal too quickly. Makes me wanna
       | move away from Ubuntu. Also the idea of these major updates where
       | the package manager mutates half the filesystem for 30 minutes
       | straight sounds like a super brittle procedure, and snaps seem to
       | address this, except that it feels wrong to have every package
       | vendor its deps. I'd like to have nixos without the learning
       | curve please...
        
         | remram wrote:
         | I have this weird issue where _holding volume down crashes the
         | entire desktop_. It is rather strange. No problem with other
         | keys, no problem tapping volume down rather than holding it, no
         | instability anywhere else that I 've noticed. It is the
         | strangest thing.
        
           | ASalazarMX wrote:
           | Please update if it turns out you discovered negative sound.
        
         | lvass wrote:
         | If you just want to install packages, nix-env is really simple.
        
           | nrabulinski wrote:
           | Which, in my opinion, completely defeats the whole purpose of
           | using NixOS. The last thing I want is a bunch of ad-hoc
           | changes to my reproducible environment setup
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | nrabulinski wrote:
         | If you look only at the new nix command and flakes and
         | disregard all the "legacy" commands nix is very simple and the
         | learning curve isn't much steeper than jumping to any other
         | distro. The documentation around flakes is also much more
         | complete and much higher quality on top of the NixOS discord
         | being happy to help or point to where you can find the answers.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | I've been tracking Kinetic dev and the way they do the kernel is
       | baffling. It was static for months, then right before the kernel
       | freeze they just merged in a huge pile of junk that they didn't
       | understand, which broke a ton of important things including Intel
       | iGPUs, Intel wifi, and even booting on Intel 11th generation and
       | later CPUs. No integration tests or anything. With the release
       | kernel i915 graphics are still glitchy as hell and Intel Wifi 6E
       | doesn't work.
       | 
       | I don't think the dev->freeze->release system works correctly.
        
       | fulafel wrote:
       | The regular as clockwork bi-yearly releases are one of the best
       | things about Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the default supported Linux
       | laptop/desktop env in so many tech orgs.
       | 
       | If you use Ubuntu and want to help ensure it works for your env
       | remember to test the upcoming release alphas / betas eg with USB
       | boot stick and file bugs on Launchpad if you notice something
       | broken.
       | 
       | (Same goes for other distros your org may use, eg Debian, Fedora
       | etc)
       | 
       | Snaps mostly work great, and are a great improvement for keepign
       | up to date sw available for people using LTS releases. This and
       | the security improvements brought by the sandboxing greatly
       | overshadow the sometime teething problems of the system.
        
         | hn2017 wrote:
         | Not sure why your downvoted. Ubuntu has been fairly reliable
         | for years
        
           | Shared404 wrote:
           | Probably was due to this line:
           | 
           | > Snaps mostly work great, and are a great improvement for
           | keepign up to date sw available for people using LTS
           | releases. This and the security improvements brought by the
           | sandboxing greatly overshadow the sometime teething problems
           | of the system.
           | 
           | That being said, I do currently use Ubuntu 20.04 at work
           | (with snap disabled) and it's been pretty great.
           | 
           | E to Add: I don't think snap/flatpak are _inherently_ bad.
           | Snap's implementation however does however cause lots of
           | problems for me. While maybe these are just teething issues,
           | flatpak is right there and works now, with acceptable
           | sandboxing for my usecase.
           | 
           | E2: spelling
        
       | VLM wrote:
       | The micropython support is interesting; most activity is on
       | circuitpython but micropython supports older chips (the ESP8266
       | and the very first OG original ESP32 are two examples of hardware
       | I have on my desk).
       | 
       | They both work, its just the odds are vastly higher of finding a
       | library for circuit rather than micro and there's probably ten
       | circuit python users for every micropython user. Although I "have
       | to" use both.
       | 
       | I thought that was interesting to throw in support of the less
       | popular but wider range of hardware choice for microcontroller
       | python and not even mention the other more popular option.
       | 
       | (Side note what's up with UF2 firmware upgrades not working on
       | ESP32-S2 chips, works on everything else, must be an interesting
       | story behind that)
        
       | gauddasa wrote:
       | I am more interested in the wallpaper rather than new
       | (anti)features.
       | 
       | https://149366088.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/202...
        
       | gunapologist99 wrote:
       | I still run Ubuntu (actually Kubuntu) on one of my XPS laptops,
       | where it actually runs great, but I'm slowly switching over to
       | Void for my desktop/laptops, which I've been running on my
       | servers for years; it does take more time to install (especially
       | with RAID) but is so much nicer and simpler to deal with once
       | installed (without _systemd_ or snaps).
       | 
       | Void is kinda like what Debian used to be -- rough around the
       | edges but really a great distribution once it's up and running.
        
       | giobox wrote:
       | It says a lot about the incredible success of the Raspberry Pi
       | that headline features in Ubuntu releases are now aimed
       | specifically at it.
        
         | sixothree wrote:
         | Too bad you can't get a W for less than $50 right now.
        
       | noasaservice wrote:
       | Because this matters: https://haydenjames.io/remove-snap-
       | ubuntu-22-04-lts/
       | 
       | I've been getting "Firefox is updating in $time days" as a
       | unstoppable notification, because snap uses highest priority to
       | jam notifications through.
       | 
       | The best is to purge snap completely from the system. And the URL
       | applies to 22.04, but likely also works mostly the same, with
       | possibly more "snap list" crap to remove.
       | 
       | If I could properly administrate snap, and if it followed my
       | settings, I'd use it. But it doesn't provide for ANY sort of
       | reasonable administration nor respectable defaults. So it gets
       | the axe.
        
       | wslh wrote:
       | Does it solve the freezing with dual monitors? [1]
       | 
       | [1] https://askubuntu.com/questions/1407630/os-freezing-with-
       | dua...
        
       | jasode wrote:
       | I looked for the 22.10 download a few hours ago and didn't see it
       | so I did a Google search and found today's comment about it
       | possibly being delayed:
       | https://askubuntu.com/questions/1436351/when-will-ubuntu-22-...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | edub wrote:
         | I'm downloading it from:
         | 
         | https://releases.ubuntu.com/kinetic/
         | https://releases.ubuntu.com/22.10/
        
       | derefr wrote:
       | Lot of people here with opinions about using Ubuntu as a desktop
       | OS. Seemingly nobody here with opinions about Ubuntu as a server
       | OS. Strange for a bunch of startup people who ship their SaaS
       | backends on Linux servers.
        
         | mort96 wrote:
         | I use Ubuntu Server on all my headless stuff. It's boring, in
         | the best way possible. I install it and set it up, run `apt-get
         | update && apt-get upgrade` occasionally (I should enable
         | unattended upgrades but I haven't), and otherwise don't have to
         | think about it at all until it's time to upgrade to another LTS
         | 2 years later.
         | 
         | Those LTS to LTS upgrades are kinda painful, but not
         | unexpectedly so, considering you're catching up to the past 2
         | years of evolution in the whole ecosystem at once. On personal
         | computers, I hate that model, but on servers, I'd much rather
         | spend up to a day or two fixing stuff at a time of my own
         | choosing once every two years, than spend less time fixing
         | random issues which crop up at random intervals during a
         | routine apt-get upgrade.
        
         | suprjami wrote:
         | I have a couple of personal servers I run on Ubuntu.
         | 
         | I've used Alpine before and it's fine, but I want proper bash
         | and full tools which is tedious to setup, and it doesn't do
         | release upgrades automatically. Sometimes they make major
         | changes like sudo-to-doas. Alpine needs a better versioning
         | system and a release upgrader.
         | 
         | I've also run Debian and found it unpolished and unreliable.
         | For no reason whatsoever package updates just randomly reset
         | all my preferences sometimes. This has happened to me multiple
         | times over different packages and installs. Now I wouldn't run
         | Debian if you paid me.
         | 
         | Ubuntu Server has none of these problems and just works.
        
           | gunapologist99 wrote:
           | FWIW, Void is like a bigger version of Alpine; they even both
           | have musl versions. (Interestingly, I've always found Debian
           | quite reliable but agree that it definitely lacks the polish
           | that Ubuntu provides.)
        
       | tommica wrote:
       | Just to add a bit of positivity in the sea of negativity - thanks
       | for Ubuntu, it has been very impactful in the ecosystem!
        
         | dm319 wrote:
         | The comments are always a bit contrary to the topic here. I've
         | used ubuntu since 2009, and I am still very much a fan. My
         | preference is for ubuntuMATE, and I'll confess I'm not that
         | keen on snaps, but overall, it's great to have an amazing free
         | operating system to use like this.
        
       | aliqot wrote:
       | Ubuntu seems to be doing a speedrun of Microsoft's Embrace,
       | Extend, Extinguish.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | Microsoft will buy Canonical before the decade is out is my
         | thought.
         | 
         | Then shall there be two distros of IBM and Microsoft, grinning
         | at each other across a dead land filled with rottenness.
        
           | ThrowawayR2 wrote:
           | If they'd wanted a Linux distribution, they'd have bid on Red
           | Hat back when it was up for sale, which was at least fairly
           | profitable and fit in with their enterprise lineup.
        
           | Mikeb85 wrote:
           | > Microsoft will buy Canonical before the decade is out is my
           | thought.
           | 
           | People have said this for a decade and it still hasn't
           | happened... IMO it won't either. It's privately owned and
           | even if they do go public it's doubtful they'll give away so
           | many shares that they can be taken over... It's Mark
           | Shuttleworth's baby and he doesn't seem to want to sell it.
        
             | nickstinemates wrote:
             | I think the ship sailed. Prime opportunity was when Ubuntu
             | for Windows was launched.
        
               | aliqot wrote:
               | >when Ubuntu for Windows was launched.
               | 
               | embrace
               | 
               | extend <-- you are here
               | 
               | extinguish
        
               | ASalazarMX wrote:
               | Also, they know that extinguishing Ubuntu would mean IT
               | people hopping to the next friendly distro. You can't put
               | back the Linux rabbit in the hat.
        
           | aliqot wrote:
           | I think this is very likely. They bought Lennart, and Github,
           | afterall.
        
         | nix23 wrote:
         | Yeah but themself and not other's...maybe they don't understand
         | the meaning of it?
        
           | aliqot wrote:
           | I don't understand your comment, but would like to make the
           | observation that Canonical vis-a-vis Ubuntu is trying to make
           | Ubuntu as ubiquitous as Windows when it comes to someones
           | 'first' Linux system, or as a Linux system that "Just works"
           | and are abusing this position (in my opinion) to push forward
           | proprietary and regressive technologies like Snap. Open
           | source does not negate something being proprietary. There are
           | many 'one format' packages out there, flatpak and appimage
           | being two great ones. Snap is two steps back, no steps
           | forward, but it has that Ubuntu logo which conveys authority,
           | and that's about as un-Linux like as it gets.
           | 
           | By virtue of power-of-authority, they're quite literally
           | forcing this garbage on the greater linux ecosystem that
           | other people simply don't even know exists. Ask anybody on
           | the street if they know what a Linux is and if the answer
           | isn't 'no', the ones who can respond will say something like
           | 'oh yeah, i have ubuntu on my thumb drive'.
           | 
           | If you'd have told me this would happen in 1995, I'd have
           | said you're nuts and gone back to hammering dents out of my
           | Yggdrasil install as I chuckled.
        
         | lvass wrote:
         | More like continuously trying to reinvent the wheel and giving
         | up.
        
           | yamtaddle wrote:
           | They're trying to answer or get ahead of Red Hat but failing
           | every time. Systemd beat Upstart, RH-captured Gnome beat
           | Unity (and helped ensure Systemd was the easiest way to go
           | for a general-purpose desktop distro, in the process),
           | Wayland beat Mir, and Flatpack may not win but Snap sure as
           | hell isn't gonna.
        
           | Mikeb85 wrote:
           | Yup. Seems like they consistently invent their own thing
           | that's different than what RH/Suse/etc... come up with, then
           | give up and just use that thing (Upstart vs. Systemd, Mir vs.
           | Wayland, Unity vs. Gnome Shell and now Snap will probably
           | lose to Flatpak...).
        
             | zmk5 wrote:
             | I think the Linux community's reflexive hatred of anything
             | Canonical does is a major turn off. Unity wasn't bad, and
             | judging by how much Wayland has struggled I am curious what
             | would have happened if Mir was still around.
        
               | Mikeb85 wrote:
               | Wayland's fine if you don't use Nvidia (which seems to be
               | true of many things that Nvidia breaks).
               | 
               | That being said, I didn't mind Unity or Mir.
        
       | talkingtab wrote:
       | the only releases I see are the amd64 (desktop and server)
       | 
       | https://releases.ubuntu.com/22.10/
       | 
       | is the raspberry pi version available or going to be?
        
       | Theizestooke wrote:
       | The only reason I still use Ubuntu is that their font smoothing
       | is superior to everyone else straight out of the box. I tried to
       | recreate the steps on Fedora, but couldn't come close.
        
         | seabrookmx wrote:
         | Also ZFS being a single "apt install" away is pretty sweet.
        
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