Is it just me, or are most snap packages broken?
A lot of problems have to do with developers using some command to start or run a process, for example:
- dropbox “Launch Dropbox Website” fails badly for Firefox as a snap
- gimp as a snap, preferences-folders--Show file location in the file manager, doesn’t work
Another type of problem is the location for local files, e.g.:
- a snap zoom upgrade uses the same location for recordings as the prior version, which doesn’t work because the old snap version directory is inaccessible
Another type of problem is the integration with Ubuntu (ostensibly the owner of the snap format), for example:
- superkey (Windows logo) search for a snap and click or double-click on the icon just shows a wait cursor and finally times out (you have to right click and choose New Window)
- update fails to update snaps - you need to manually sudo snap refresh, and even then the Software Updater thinks it need to update something until you reboot
- snap-store has no search function - but if you start typing it will search (what kind of sadistic user experience designer thought that one up?)
- snap-store Updates - Update All can fail and display a failure message from weeks ago
- don’t even get me on about disk usage, like /var/lib/snapd/snaps or your ~/snap directory, that likely have more gigabytes than you’ve needed in a long time
Should I just give up on snaps and use Flatpack or Appimage?
Use your system's native package manager and repository unless you have a really good reason not to. Really good reasons include:
Some additional reasons:
Flatpak specific:
Flatpak is a great choice for Steam in particular. The native install requires a full 32bit multilib stack from your distros package repo, flatpak steam boxes all of that up on its own.
I try to use flatpak for GUI apps where possible, those don't need unrestricted access to my user data in most cases.