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Ubuntu flavours to drop Flatpak by default and stick to Snaps

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Canonical has announced a change in the packaging defaults for the various "flavours" like Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie and so on to exclude Flatpak and stick with Snap. Yes that's flavours, not flavors but also flavors in the announcement.

This is no doubt going to be a hot topic, because name me a more intense argument in the Linux world than packaging. While Flatpak has been gaining many fans lately, partly because it's included as the official way to install extra packages in Desktop Mode on the Steam Deck, Canonical are sticking to their own Snap.

So what's going on? In short: Ubuntu flavours will no longer have Flatpak enabled or setup by default. However, users can still do it themselves as they're not being removed from any repositories. It's all about the out of the box experience, with Canonical and the flavours now sticking to deb and snap to maintain their focus on what is actually properly supported by them and gets the most attention.

Users who have Flatpak installed won't see any changes, it's just the out of the box new-install experience as of April 2023, with the release of Ubuntu Lunar Lobster.

This is, after all, why we have different distributions isn't it? They're free to make whatever decisions they wish, and people who don't like it can go elsewhere, or just change the defaults to their liking — Linux is open and configurable unlike certain other systems. Do what you want.

So while it's going to be controversial, it's not exactly a big deal is it? Sort of. It's still making the desktop Linux experience quite messy, especially for newer users since there's no single way of installing things across different Linux distributions. You can't usually just point people to this thing and say get that, unless you first know the exact distribution they're on.

If you have thoughts you can comment on the announcement and let them know.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Ubuntu
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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TactikalKitty May 25, 2023
[quote=slaapliedje]
Quoting: BoldosWhat constitutes a 'flavor' in their mind? Is that Kubuntu, or is it things like Linux Mint / PopOS. Some of them still use the Ubuntu repos. This just seems like early shots to try to eliminate competition.

You might be on to something there. With Linux Mint, they have stated that the reason they maintain an LMDE variant is for testing and to ensure that Linux Mint would still survive should Ubuntu ever disappear...or in this case, try to screw them over. I'm positive Linux Mint will be okay, but other Ubuntu Derivatives..I"m not so sure about. I think if Canonical tried this, A lot of users of Ubuntu Derivatives would just run pure Debian or OpenSuse.
slaapliedje May 26, 2023
[quote=TactikalKitty]
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: BoldosWhat constitutes a 'flavor' in their mind? Is that Kubuntu, or is it things like Linux Mint / PopOS. Some of them still use the Ubuntu repos. This just seems like early shots to try to eliminate competition.

You might be on to something there. With Linux Mint, they have stated that the reason they maintain an LMDE variant is for testing and to ensure that Linux Mint would still survive should Ubuntu ever disappear...or in this case, try to screw them over. I'm positive Linux Mint will be okay, but other Ubuntu Derivatives..I"m not so sure about. I think if Canonical tried this, A lot of users of Ubuntu Derivatives would just run pure Debian or OpenSuse.
Yeah, I'd think a lot would switch to things like Sidduction, Debian, PureOS, etc. There are tons of Debian based distributions out there that are not Ubuntu based. You really do know that LMDE exists purely because Ubuntu have done some sketchy things here and there.
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