@Stuart
Honestly, I'm not surprised by the Ubunutu devs response to your bug report.
Like everyone else, I got excited about the latest Ubuntu LTS release and
installed it on day one. A week in, I’m sorry to say that I leave disappointed.
The amount of unready snap features being effectively forced onto users is
affecting Ubuntu’s usability and user-friendliness. In 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu’s
Software Center was switched from being a .deb version of GNOME Software to a
snap app. The new snapped store can handle management of snap applications and
traditional .deb ones, but it can’t install or remove Flatpak applications,
like the previous .deb version could. Users wanting to install Flatpak apps
need to revert to using the .deb version. Which at this point is no longer
available through the terminal. It’s not an ideal solution when previous
Ubuntu Software releases could handle all three formats by default. In all, the
latest Ubuntu Software is a step back. Even without Flatpak apps, I was
expecting the snap store to at least do well what it is supposed to. It turns
out it prioritizes snap apps over .deb in search results at any cost! So you’ll
see a long list of non relevant search results of snap apps above .deb ones,
even if your search term exactly matches the latter. Needless to say this is a
serious issue for discovering software, especially for new users. Given that
app discovery is so central to consumer operating systems, I’m gonna say the
new Ubuntu isn’t only a step back, but is borderline unreliable. Snap
applications auto-update and that’s fine if Ubuntu wants to keep systems
secure. But it can’t even be turned off manually. Auto-updating of snaps can
only be deferred at best, until at some point, like Windows, it auto-updates
anyway. Even on metered connections, snaps auto-update anyway after some time.
This is a deal breaker for people on limited bandwidth connections or who want
to know exactly what they’re updating and when they’d like to.
I never hold off updating my system for more than seven days in the worst case,
but this auto-update snap thing is causing me issues like slowing down my
connection abruptly and using a major chunk of my limited data for the
day.Ubuntu was my first Linux-based operating system and is what attracted me
to the ecosystem. I have a soft spot for it, especially the amazing Unity days.
As such, it is disappointing to see this snap obsession that has taken over
Ubuntu. An OS once lauded for its sane defaults and user friendliness is
actively going against the user’s will. What’s especially concerning is that
this is the Ubuntu version that millions of people will use for at least two
years. I don’t hate snaps but being forced to use it when clearly in a
premature state is forcing me to hate it. Snaps simply aren’t ready for
system-wide daily usage and Ubuntu should’ve known better. Perhaps Ubuntu
should’ve created a separate snap-based OS image, like Fedora’s Silverblue, and
only swap the default when it’s ready. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS’ snap obsession has
discouraged me from using it for the foreseeable future. I switched to Pop!_OS
a few days ago as my primary OS and I;m loving it so far. You should give it a
try.
--
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-software in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1879318
Title:
Removing gnome software snap plugin breaks gnome software storefront
on Xubuntu 20.04
Status in gnome-software package in Ubuntu:
Confirmed
Bug description:
How to reproduce:
1) Fresh install of Xubuntu 20.04
2) Open "Terminal"
3) Type "sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd gnome-software-plugin-snap"
4) Launch "Gnome Software"
Result:
I removed snapd & the Gnome Software snap plugin and I noticed that it broke
the Gnome Software front page, where you can see all the featured and
recommended applications etc. See attached screenshot. After running "sudo apt
autoremove --purge snapd gnome-software-plugin-snap" the Gnome Software Center
should default back to showing applications from the Ubuntu repository and not
snap store. The same happens in Ubuntu 18.04!
I tried clearing the app-info cache but to no avail.
$pkill gnome-software
$sudo rm -r /var/cache/app-info
$sudo appstreamcli refresh --force --verbose
Gnome-Software terminal output:
12:06:06:0632 Gs enabled plugins: desktop-categories, fwupd, os-release,
packagekit, packagekit-local, packagekit-offline, packagekit-proxy,
packagekit-refine-repos, packagekit-refresh, packagekit-upgrade,
packagekit-url-to-app, appstream, desktop-menu-path, hardcoded-blacklist,
modalias, odrs, packagekit-refine, rewrite-resource, packagekit-history,
provenance, systemd-updates, generic-updates, provenance-license, icons,
key-colors, key-colors-metadata
12:06:06:0633 Gs disabled plugins: dpkg, dummy, repos
12:06:07:0935 Gs Only 0 apps for popular list,