What use to be the PPA that allowed Ubuntu users to use native .deb packages for Firefox has recently changed to the same meta package that forces installation of Snap and the Firefox snap package.

I am having to remove the meta package, then re-uninstall the snap firefox, then re-uninstall Snap, then install pin the latest build I could get (firefox_116.0.3+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1_arm64.deb) to keep the native firefox build.

I’m so done with Ubuntu.

  • Carlos SolísEnglish
    38•1 year ago
    • There is only a single Snap server, and it is a proprietary one exclusive to Canonical
    • Upgrades are pushed in a mandatory fashion, which means things will break if a bad upgrade ever gets pushed
    • Snaps have about the same integration issues that Flatpaks have due to their sandboxing, but overcoming them is even harder due to lack of tools on the Snap side of things
    • Snaps are mostly Ubuntu-centric, and don’t quite work on other distros
    • @just_another_person
      2•1 year ago

      Mostly agree, except the last two points. Snaps are available anywhere…if you so wish (I wouldn’t).

      The biggest issue with snaps is that they are SLOOOOOOOW when compared to a standard binary install, or even Flatpak. Most of this has to do with fuse, but when you have many versions of a specific package, it just gets slower and slower.

      The local versioning system also takes up a ton of local space by not expiring caches regularly, so it’s not fit for lightweight installs.

      • Carlos Solís
        1•1 year ago

        Thanks for the clarification! I’ve never used Snaps myself (as I’d rather use Arch than Ubuntu), so I was unaware on how slow do Snaps run on an average computer. Again, sandboxing can be an overhead too large for an old machine.