Account of tsugu@slrpnk.net
Having a closed source backend isn’t the reason for malicious packages. There’s a clear distinction between official and unofficial packages, and flathub isn’t immune to this either.
In comparison to flatpak, each runtime (core[number]) is supported for 10 years, so developers aren’t pressured to update it if the app keeps working. The side effect is that over time you will end up with a few extra core snaps on your system but the peace of mind for the maintainers is worth it imo.
A small sample size is better than “most people probably”
This is a post I made on r/BuyFromEU a few months ago. Could help you understand why would someone use it.
Despite its relative skewed reputation among online Linux enthusiast, Ubuntu has remained the most downloaded and support Linux distribution to this day.
These are my reasons for picking this distro specifically:
- A unique user interface. A common theme I noticed on this subreddit is recommending Linux Mint as a drop in replacement for Windows due to its similar UI - this is perfectly valid but I appreciate Ubuntu’s unique layout and workflow. I got used to it very quickly and I now can’t even use Windows without placing my taskbar on the left.
Tap the Windows (super) key once to bring up all of your running apps on the workspace, tap it twice to bring up the app launcher. This makes a lot of sense and makes it easier to navigate the open apps for me.
I could write about a lot more things I like about its UI, such as how you can just start typing inside of the file manager to start searching, but the point is that a different UI from Windows doesn’t mean you can’t ever get used to it or like it. One thing I really love is notifications appearing on the top of the screen just like on Android/ios. It’s a small thing but they count too.
- Long term support. Have you ever felt like you just want to keep using your Windows PC until it dies and only receive security updates? Every Ubuntu is supported for 10 years and you can always select that you want to install security updates only. I have a laptop with Ubuntu 22.04 and it’s still running just fine, and it will keep doing so until 2032.
By default you get 5 years of support, and to get the other 5 you have to make an account and attach your device to it. I know, I know, accounts are bad because Microsoft is ran by morons who won’t let you even boot up your device without one, but the company behind Ubuntu has to live somehow. They wouldn’t be able to get money from companies who run thousands of workstations if everyone got such long support for free. Companies pay for it, you as an individual get it for free. No personal data are required either.
- Personality. Yes, it is subjective, hence the title of this post. The purple and orange color scheme is iconic, they even have their own font, every new version is named after some animal with a unique wallpaper made just for it. When watching videos I sometimes notice a computer with Ubuntu on it, and can pinpoint what version that is, what was special about it.
I dug deeper and discovered that in the past Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, tried making a phone which failed. It had a user interface which would be used across both the desktop and mobile phones. But it turns out the community (UBPorts) is keeping it alive. The fact that a company tried launching a phone and failed doesn’t make Ubuntu a better operating system than let’s say Debian or Fedora. I just feel like it’s a very unique company with a rich history that’s fun to learn about.
The elephant in the room, the snap package manager
Yes, Ubuntu partially switched to this form of software distribution. If you don’t even know what a package manager is, you can ignore this. I’m including this section because someone will eventually mention it in the comments. Snaps aren’t bad or evil by any means. If you heard that they are bad, I encourage you to give this a read and then make your own opinion instead of parroting whatever someone said.
Least insane online Linux user take
I’m not so sure about that when looking at stats
On Steam you can see Mint, which uses the LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 itself, the snapped version of steam (could be used anywhere, only Canonical has access to those stats)
And on the snaps I maintain I see this. The LTS releases seem to be used the most
Would. managed to turn a few apps into snaps, either from source or by repackaging their binaries.
Fortunately this is wrong. They invest quite a bit into their desktop releases. They even have a small team that tests the Steam snap alone to make sure it works.
The recent addition of triple buffering into GNOME was a contribution of an an Ubuntu engineer. And if you look at the sponsor pages of projects like KDE you will see Canonical. I think they very much care, they just don’t fold under pressure from comment sections.
Especially in the tech spaces
On a technical level, they’ve gotten very capable and in some ways are better than flatpak (packaging CLI software is super easy). Yes in the beginning they were slow but 10 years has passed.
What a lot of users dislike is Canonical not open sourcing the backend that hosts the files. You can always install them locally, similarly to apks on Android. I don’t see it as an issue because once the parent company/organisation dies that’s usually it for the project, be it open source or proprietary.
Snaps also use runtimes based on Ubuntu itself so Canonical dying = losing core functionality that is open source but nobody else will bother to take on that job.