Hi,
I noticed that the Firefox version from the browser ballot of budgie welcome comes with another Icon than the “original” one, which I get when I install the snap from the software center.
Are there any other more important differences between the two?
I also noticed that mozilla provides its own snap packages as a tar ball from their website: Link. There you get version 60 and the software center is still on 59.
So remember there is usually a few days between when mozilla releases a version and when a tested version built specifically for Ubuntu is available - through a snap and/or a debian package.
So welcome always installs the debian package version - so it is native to Ubuntu and the browser integrates fully with the whole desktop.
The snap version is in its own container - so completely sandboxed from the rest of the client. So the security of firefox in a snap is great - just if you are using firefox in an unusual way, you may not be able to integrate in the same way.
For most people who just browse - the snap and debian native version will behave and work the same.
I see, thank you. So the welcome version has its own icon due to the other install method.
Just a quick follow up. Mozilla distributes its own version as a snap package, which seems to be just a tarball containing the snap directory structure. I haven’t used snaps before. How would I install such a snap tarball such that I also get a proper entry in the start menu?
Btw I noticed that it often takes 5 or more minutes after I install a package until the app shows up in the start menu.
Hello @wAuner,
The installation of the snap is pretty typical with sudo snap install firefox. Regardless of the internals of the snap itself - the process (for installation) is the same. Now when it comes to menu entries, this is dictated by how the snap author built the snap. And if they put the *.desktop files in the appropriate place. But that more so is just the “availability” of the menu item. As for the delay, TBH, I need to research that. I’ll have a quick boo over on the snapcraft forum and see if it is a known issue. And if it is not, a bug report may need to be filed. Let me get back to you.
hey, thanks for your reply.
Would sudo snap install firefox not search for the firefox snap in a repository? What I meant is how to install the tarball after downloading it via the browser.
The problem with the delay isn’t limited to snaps, but also occurs when I install packages via apt.
No, that would pull it from the snap store. Maybe I am misunderstanding something here. You are trying to install from a local source? Likely the snap has not yet been build in that format.
Snap packages are distributed through the snap store. There is no download (an I have never seen a method for an unbuilt local source. The snap install will download and install the containerized version of the app.
Now if you have downloaded the source tar and it includes a *.snap file, you could isntall that, but you will nto get any updates, etc.
sudo snap install /path/to/xxxx.snap
But I would just install from the snap store. There is no benefit to installing from a local file unless you authored and built the snap and you are testing prior to pushing to the store.
If I am missing something here, please let me know. 
the delay to adding to the menu is because the developers did not merge back the previous changes when updating the package for 18.04.
I have proposed a fix for this here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-menus/+bug/1765799
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