What use to be the PPA that allowed Ubuntu users to use native .deb packages for Firefox has recently changed to the same meta package that forces installation of Snap and the Firefox snap package.
I am having to remove the meta package, then re-uninstall the snap firefox, then re-uninstall Snap, then install pin the latest build I could get (firefox_116.0.3+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1_arm64.deb) to keep the native firefox build.
I’m so done with Ubuntu.
@PseudoSpock add Linux Mint repository and install Firefox from there, as described here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1386738/how-to-install-chromium-from-the-linux-mint-repositories-in-ubuntu
Or switch to Linux Mint entirely, like I did :ablobcatbongo:I get that people don’t like being forced, but otherwise I couldn’t care less about Firefox snap vs deb. All problems I once had have been ironed out. On the contrary, I like sticking to the “recommended” path with more developer focus and hopefully higher stability. For my usecases I have zero problems with snap.
If it works for you, fine. I still have this bug to deal with which makes snaps completely unusable in our environment.
Maybe I should try petitioning for us to at least use Linux Mint.
Same for our student PCs - As soon as the setup includes network homes snap becomes completely unusable. Applications just crash on startup because snap doesn’t allow them to access the user’s home directory
Seems like Canonical wants to push snaps now really hard. I hope that Flathub soon implements its payment structure, before companies flock to the Canonical store.
Payment? What for?
For buying or donating (maybe even subscriptions). Both open source and proprietary software. They’re working on it.
Question: Is this going to also apply to Linux Mint and other Ubuntu/Debian cousin distros?
Worth mentioning that Mint has LMDE (Linux Mint - Debian Edition), a version of Mint based on Debian instead of Ubuntu as a fallback for if/when Canonical starts doing stupid shit
The mint folks are gonna eye this whole development carefully. Personally I’d be more surprised if ten years from now Mint was still based on Ubuntu instead of Debian.
Yeah they’re all in on snaps. Vote with your distro choice.
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Mint is great. Definitely one of the best distros around. PopOS I’d wait for their new DE. Though with Ubuntu going balls deep on snaps, all those ubuntu based distros hang in the balance. At least Mint got a Debian edition already and they are working on a new version right now. Or just use straight up Debian with flatpaks, which is what I do.
Hot take: PPAs suck and snaps/flatpaks are better.
With PPAs, inevitably some repo that hasn’t been updated since 2015 causes dependency conflicts and you have to sit there and troubleshoot, or pick between the software you need and actually having an OS that’s not EOL. With snaps, you can keep your decade old dependencies all bundled up and still upgrade your system even if the package maintainer has abandoned it.
Valid opinion and immutable distros like silverblue might be where the future is headed.
It’s not the point though, I’m not going with a distro that tries to force their proprietary solution on me.
LibreWolf is a Firefox fork with features removed which we don’t want (Telemetry, Pocket, …) and a few (privacy) features enabled (which can be deactivated if they’re too annoying). I didn’t had any issues with Firefox extensions as well.
I’m currently using it on Debian and it runs smoothly. Recent Ubuntu versions are also supported and you can install them via your package manager, see here.
