this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But why is it an issue that Canonical controls a source of software for their own OS? Isn’t that the same with every distro’s repository?

No. You can add any other repository to apt, rpm, Flatpak, etc. You cannot do the same with Snap and that's by design. Canonical wants to be the sole gatekeeper of Linux software, hoping that all developers have no alternative but to publish software on the Snap store (ideally only there) which works best on Ubuntu.

Therefore: Fuck Snap.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly. I feel they want to sell it to a big player, but no big player will touch it unless they can fully control it. Hence snap as part of that plan. Ubuntu is a hell no for me.

[–] caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Forget selling it.
I think they're going to get everyone trapped in the ecosystem, and then they'll start charging for access to the source.

[–] alteropen@noc.social 5 points 1 year ago

@caseyweederman @makingStuffForFun the prediction imperative will come in before that. surveillance capitalism is how they will make their fortune

[–] KISSmyOS@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How would they trap everyone in the ecosystem?
This isn't Apple, there's a gajillon other ways of getting software you can use on every single linux distro.

[–] Metallinatus@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's exactly what they're trying to change.

[–] KISSmyOS@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then I guess it's a good thing they don't control all other Linux distros.

[–] Metallinatus@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, thank god for that.

[–] KISSmyOS@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You cannot do the same with Snap and that’s by design. Canonical wants to be the sole gatekeeper of Linux software

Then why did they publish source code and documentation for all parts of it, so you can create your own snap store?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Smoke and mirrors. You cannot add a secondary Snap repository.

[–] Patch@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You can; the issue is that you can't add two snap repositories at once.

This is functionally pretty much the same thing, as nobody is likely to want to use snap while locking themselves out of the main snap repository, but it's still important to make the distinction.

In theory I guess there's nothing stopping you setting up a mirror of the main snap repo with automatic package scraping, but nobody's really bothered exploring it seeing as no distro other than Ubuntu has taken any interest in running snap.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I know that it's possible to change the one entry but adding additional ones is not possible and that's by design.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From reading this that's not the whole story. Someone working at canonical successfully made a version of snap that could use alternative stores, but the default version does not allow it

And honestly at the point of installing that modified version you may as well just install a different package manager anyway

[–] Metallinatus@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or better yet, a different OS.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Might I suggest NixOS best package manager out there imo