Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Canonical want help testing their Steam snap package for Ubuntu

By - | Views: 47,654

Do you game on Ubuntu or one of their flavours like Kubuntu or Xubuntu? Canonical want your help in further testing of the Steam snap. For anyone confused: there's many different types of packages on Linux. There's deb, rpm, flatpak, snap, appimage and more. Snap is what Canonical (who make Ubuntu) are rolling with.

Writing on their official Discourse forum, developer Ken VanDine mentioned they're hoping to have the snap of Steam out of Early Access soon and available to everyone.

In the post VanDine mentioned they've been "working feverishly to resolve issues and ensure it works well" and testing has been done across "the most popular Steam titles which should ‘just work’ based on reports on ProtonDB". But now they want more people to get involved to give their reports on how games work.

Details on how to get involved can be seen in the forum post.

The overall feeling you get from looking online is that snaps aren't particularly popular. However, is it just a case of a few people shouting above the rest? VanDine answered a few of my questions on that and more in an interview with GOL last year.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Ubuntu
21 Likes
About the author -
author picture
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.
See more from me
57 comments
Page: «6/6
  Go to:

slaapliedje Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)
fenglengshun Mar 23, 2023
Quoting: slaapliedjeRight, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)
Actually I think someone did make a proof of concept alternate store to snapcraft, it just never gone anywhere. I don't even remember what its name is, I just remembered it exists.
F.Ultra Mar 24, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)

Of course, but then perhaps also at the same time stop the hate for snap? I mean that was the context, not that you had to use it ;)
slaapliedje Mar 27, 2023
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)

Of course, but then perhaps also at the same time stop the hate for snap? I mean that was the context, not that you had to use it ;)
My actual problem with snap is how difficult it is to remove it from an Ubuntu system... well less about how difficult it is, but it's annoying that it breaks the Ubuntu Software Center when you do. If you want to just use flatpak / debs, you're basically going to be using gnome-software (if you want gui).
F.Ultra Mar 27, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)

Of course, but then perhaps also at the same time stop the hate for snap? I mean that was the context, not that you had to use it ;)
My actual problem with snap is how difficult it is to remove it from an Ubuntu system... well less about how difficult it is, but it's annoying that it breaks the Ubuntu Software Center when you do. If you want to just use flatpak / debs, you're basically going to be using gnome-software (if you want gui).

One can always criticize the implementation of course. I have zero experience with the software center since I only use apt directly and thus had zero problems removing snap from e.g servers (I run a few micro servers at aws where I had to really squeeze out every available byte of RAM).

But I can guess that it is difficult since they obviously want their users to use snap so they have built it into the system basically.
sarmad Mar 27, 2023
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)

Of course, but then perhaps also at the same time stop the hate for snap? I mean that was the context, not that you had to use it ;)
My actual problem with snap is how difficult it is to remove it from an Ubuntu system... well less about how difficult it is, but it's annoying that it breaks the Ubuntu Software Center when you do. If you want to just use flatpak / debs, you're basically going to be using gnome-software (if you want gui).

I think with time it'll become harder and harder to remove snap from Ubuntu because it looks like Canonical's plans are to move in the direction of Ubuntu Core where system services are installed as snaps. This obviously will make Ubuntu more solid since there is less chance for packages to step on each other, but will pretty much force every Ubuntu user to use snaps.
slaapliedje Mar 30, 2023
Quoting: sarmad
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: slaapliedjeI bet you if there could be alt stores to snap, no one would hate it as much as they do.

Well that is the situation today but people still hate it as much as they do. Now there AFAIK does not yet exist such a store, but there _could_ do since everything needed to build it is available, it's just that no one have bothered and that is hardly Canonical:s fault.
I'd like to be proven wrong, but I'm pretty sure their backend is tied very much into their client.

The URL to the store is most likely hardcoded in the source code of snapd, but the code is open so it can be forked and so far we don't know how Canonical would treat a patch that changes that to a config value under say /etc/snap.d/.
Right, but who would want to bother when you can just use flatpak? :)

Of course, but then perhaps also at the same time stop the hate for snap? I mean that was the context, not that you had to use it ;)
My actual problem with snap is how difficult it is to remove it from an Ubuntu system... well less about how difficult it is, but it's annoying that it breaks the Ubuntu Software Center when you do. If you want to just use flatpak / debs, you're basically going to be using gnome-software (if you want gui).

I think with time it'll become harder and harder to remove snap from Ubuntu because it looks like Canonical's plans are to move in the direction of Ubuntu Core where system services are installed as snaps. This obviously will make Ubuntu more solid since there is less chance for packages to step on each other, but will pretty much force every Ubuntu user to use snaps.
Yeah, this is what I think will happen, and it'll basically make it no longer a Debian based distribution with decent defaults (which is what I used it for up until they dropped Evolution for Thunderbird. Sure is Thunderbird sufficient for a large swath of people using desktop Linux. Yes. Is it sufficient for enterprise use? No. (at least it wasn't at the time, some stuff has matured so that it's better than it used to be, though Evolution still beats it as far as being a full groupware suite).

I'd like to say it doesn't affect me, but then I've seen a few apps already that are limited to being distributed via the snap store (or tar ball), so are more difficult to install on Debian.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register


Or login with...
Sign in with Steam Sign in with Google
Social logins require cookies to stay logged in.