this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
1090 points (97.4% liked)

linuxmemes

20703 readers
1493 users here now

I use Arch btw


Sister communities:

Community rules

  1. Follow the site-wide rules and code of conduct
  2. Be civil
  3. Post Linux-related content
  4. No recent reposts

Please report posts and comments that break these rules!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

2024 is the Year of Linux on the Desktop, at least for my boyfriend. He's running Windows 7 right now, so I'll be switching him to Ubuntu in a few days. Ubuntu was chosen because Proton is officially supported in Ubuntu.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've used Ubuntu for 10 years. I love it for stability, ease, and simplicity If i need to do anything there are plenty of guides. I learned how to do a lot of cool stuff on linux but I don't really need or want to do any of it.

Mostly I just pirate movies, use a vpn, torrent, listen to music, write. My career doesn't require much computer stuff. Why should I try something different?

I'm not working with a huge amount of interest in or energy for complicated customization. I just wanna turn it on and have it work.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Power to you, friend. But with current snap store out of the box it's really hard to recommend Ubuntu to anyone. Linux Mint seems such a better choice to newbies.

At the end of the day it's not really a big deal, people should just use whatever feels best.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What is wrong with the snap store? It's not something I'm aware of.

I go to terminal. I sudo apt-get

I get Firefox, I get my VPN, I get deluge, I get my audio player.

I use those things. I sleep well at night.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If you use apt-get you aren't using snaps, you are unaffected.

Snap is a format created by Canonical which has a really funky proprietary back end. The default application store in Ubuntu uses this format and has been plagued with an impersonation problem. Since everyone could submit snaps there was a lot of spyware posing as legit software. My main gripe was when the snap store just decided to unilaterally close and update my Firefox while I was using it.

Linux Mint does NOT have snaps and even had a debian based version. Pretty neat

[–] CameronDev 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Correct me if I am wrong, but apt-get install firefox installs the snap version unless you go out of your way to fix that?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Yep, it installs the snap version

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I believe this is correct. Ubuntu installs the snap package if there is an equivalent package available. So even if you use apt, you still get snaps.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

apt uses debians packages and debian repositories. Unless they recently created an alias or something, it should install debian packaged version!

[–] CameronDev 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I was under the impression the latest "firefox" package was a kind of "meta" package that caused the snap to get installed instead.

Certainly seems that way according to: https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=firefox

Note that 22.04 is described as a transitional package to snap.

Apt does use debian packages (.deb files), but on ubuntu it uses ubuntus repositories.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Even worse than I thought, then :/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

They've introduced a couple of redirects so that the snap version gets installed.