What did ubuntu do other than being backed by a private corporation?

[arctic pelican]

Im thinking of trying out ubuntu (i am a distrohopper, i like trying out new things), and, all ive heard about ubuntu these days is just negativity, why is that? Not defending them or anything, just asking.

[jovial dove]

Ubuntu is a good distro, people like to complain. They did a few controversial things like removing some packages from the repositories and only keeping the snapd version, which isn't nessesairly bad. People also dislike that snapd can only use Snapcraft, which is controlled by canonical, meaning no one can create their repository.

[arctic pelican]

thats fine, thanks for the info 👍

[frosty pollen]

you still have full access to the native system app repos in Ubuntu, via terminal, or via installing Synaptic package manager :
sudo apt update
sudo apt install synaptic

you may even go a step further and disable snapd (the process that is built-into Ubuntu's own Software Centre) so that it won't show or install any snap packages, if you'd prefer full open source only stuff to show. (already the case in synaptic)

I agree it is a good distro. Just the darn ISO got freakin huge the last couple years, and some ppl think it's heavy or don't like GNOME desktop, but that's their opinion.

• can also install gdebi which makes it super easy to then be able to install reputable (official) .deb files from the Internet.

[arctic pelican]

got it 👍

[undone lagoon]

It's not that some packages are only available as Snap, it's that a false stub file is put into the Ubuntu repos and these snaps come from the system repo, not the Snap store. Users are expecting to be downloading a native system package, not a snap.

This takes away transparency for the end-user, and is why Mint disables snaps.

I should have full control and knowledge over what is installed on my system, and any platform that obfuscates what, exactly, I'm installing is a problem. That goes against the spirit and ethos of the FOSS community.

Outside of Ubuntu, Snaps do not have this issue, as the problem is not within the snap store itself, but the Ubuntu repo. If you install SnapD on any distro that isn't Ubuntu (or a downstream) you'll only get a Snap should you explicitly choose to install it.

[jovial dove]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. As for the last part, I've understood is that snapd can only work with canonical Snapcraft.

[undone lagoon]

So, the Snap platform is closed-source, the Snap store is not. Only Canonical can host a Snap repo, however, Snap can be installed and used on any Linux distro, not just Ubuntu and it's downstreams. For example, you can get a Debian or Arch based distro, which does not have system repos which will install a Snap package without being transparent to the user, and still install Snaps manually for the applications in which to use them. If you enable Snap on any distro that is Ubuntu based, such as forcing it on Mint, you will still have the problem the Ubuntu repos represent.

Snaps themselves aren't inherently evil. If you're aware of what a Snap is and choose to install it, that is up to the end-user. Canonical, though, has shady practices as a company.

It's actually why I won't ever go back to Ubuntu or any downstreams.

[pale vector]

This might be historical but back then, around pre-2010s, whenever I heard the term "Linux", I always associate with Ubuntu. So in a sense, Ubuntu did a really good job to promote Linux to a lot of people and people like me come to linux and enjoy using computer (as well as wiping out all data) thanks to what Ubuntu did back in the day.

To be fair, I haven't really used Ubuntu as a daily driver. I just download their ISO and save it to my live USB flash drive, occasionally trying them out for fun.

[arctic pelican]

thanks to all of you 👍

[undone lagoon]

The widest reach of Linux to the common consumer now is no longer Ubuntu, but Steam OS, and I'm glad that the entry-point has shifted. While I wouldn't install an immutable distro on my personal devices, an immutable, flatpak-only, hardware-specific, distro, takes a lot of the growing pains out of Linux for new users, for people who aren't even Linux users, the Steam Deck can be a daily driver. And unlike Ubuntu, they aren't obfuscating or abstracting the software installations to the end user. In addition, gaming was one of the largest hurdles to adoption, and measures such as forced TPM, or taking screenshots of your desktop to feed to an AI, have turned users off of Microsoft. Between Linux finally coming to age on a consumer platform, and Microsoft becoming more and more authoritarian, it's likely we'll see an s-curve of adoption over the next decade.