And in response to Ubuntu Snaps...



If you're using Ubuntu, Canonical already has control. They decide what software makes it into the main repos, when that gets updated, what servers they'll operate, how they'll roll out updates, etc...

The same is true with Mint, Fedora, RHEL, etc... Whoever is in charge at your favorite distro has control over your system. They have *root* control, pretty much, 'cause they control what's in the system, what's in your updates, etc...

Historically speaking, aside from a gaffe or two (as with all companies), Canonical have been good Linux stewards. So, no... No, I see it as mostly people looking for excuses when they can't find technical excuses to be outraged.
I'll comment on this...

Yes Canonical own/control the infrastructure Ubuntu uses, but as for decisions on where packages reside ('main' or 'universe') I see that as a Ubuntu Technical Board decision, and yes if you look at who is currently sitting on it (https://launchpad.net/~techboard/+members#active) you'll see many people who also work at Canonical thus Canonical could influence it, but I don't see direct control.

My 2c on decisions is that its always for technical reasons, though my understanding of all that is involved only scrapes the surface of the issues/alternatives & thus I have far less than full understanding of decisions I've seen.

I'm not involved with Canonical, being a Ubuntu community member, but my permissions & CC hat allows me to peruse the TB ML etc should I wish to see more than the items that already hit my inbox. Maybe what I see (which isn't control; the potential for influence for sure) is covered in your "good stewards" comment too.

They do have potential to control though; just as it is with other distributions, or in fact occurs everywhere with companies/organizations.
 
It is my understanding that Snaps can make changes to the software on my Linux system without my explicit authorization. That is a deal-breaker for me. It is as simple as that. I have other objections to Snaps, but they pale in comparison.

The standard snap packages have very limited access to your actual file-system.

Yes when installed you need to give them root/elevated privileges so they can write the data where it needs to, but that's the same as installing a deb package with the install needing 'root' equivalent. But once installed it depends on the type of snap.


If the snap package has normal confinement permissions (strict), it has access to your $HOME or user directory; but little access beyond that if you exclude /mnt or /media and connections to other snap packages. (Its these confinement issues that have been so problematic for Mozilla since they moved to snap package, esp. with regards extensions & some banking etc requirements)

If the snap is classic as regards the confinement, which is much harder to get when creating the snap package due to full rights (ie. full reason needs to be given & then the page on the snapcraft store will report the package has these rights - it's meant for system utilities only, ie. snap equivalent of a deb package that can change your actual install). These snap packages (which are few, but they do exist) do have full access to your root file-system.

I won't cover --devmode as they're somewhat rare... though many 3rd party apps will use it as it's easier to get a snap package into the snapstore using this than using the classic confinement.
 
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I'll comment on this...

I probably could have worded it better. Ah well... The point remains the same, that there's already people in control of the OS. And, Canonical could just disband the team and make the decisions themselves. (Which would, and rightfully so, be much drama.) IIRC, all the people on that team had to be approved - voted on *and* approved.

All that said and done, it's not my job to try to sway opinions. Folks are gonna believe whatever they want, often without facts and just speculation. If you search for a boogeyman, you'll eventually find him.

Also, I don't really have the energy to respond to everyone tonight. I'll rely on a quote from the great Jim Morrison:

"When the music's over, turn out the light."
 
I have some studying to do, then I will be back.

There's a lot of FUD-spreading and misinformation out there. I did not notice how much until the past few days. Even the 'like Microsoft' claims are pretty spurious, as pretty much every major OS had an 'app store' type of thing well before Microsoft decided it was a good idea.

I am an 'official' Ubuntu/Lubuntu member, but my thoughts are my own. I think Canonical would have an easier time at this if they made the store itself opensource. I can understand why they don't want there to be multiple Snap stores (fragmentation and negating the whole point to begin with), but making the code available for scrutiny might make it more palatable to the teeming masses.
 
There's a lot of FUD-spreading and misinformation out there. I did not notice how much until the past few days.
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