Software === Snap Store?

Hi there,
just returned to ubuntu after a decade with osx. Installed budgie (which is awesome!) and one of the first things I installed was „snap-store“ via the commandline because I thought it‘s needed. But it seems like the „Software“ app is just the renamed snap store or are there any real differences like different contents or something?

(Sorry if this seems like a stupid question but I just wanted to make sure that I am not misunderstanding something here.)

Thanks in advance.

Simon

The snap store is basically gnome-software but with a whole lot of Canonical patches that tailor and promote snaps.

gnome-software in 20.10 is almost vanilla gnome software now I.e very little modification how gnome devs have envisioned their software.

Doesn’t Snap-Store only show app’s packaged as snap ?

Whereas gnome-software only shows good legacy APT/.deb repositories ?

If you want to avoid the new monsters aka snap and flatpak, just use synaptic.

Snap-store also installs and shows repository software.

You cant though install the flatpak plugin

Ok I was wrong about snap-store then.

Though I strongly would not advice to have one-only store for APT.deb + snap + flatpak

It’s the best way for installing app’s without knowing how they’re packaged and therefore forgetting to correctly set them. Those new monster packages require many more attentions than legacy APT/.deb from user’s point of view.

Unless the app you need is only available as snap or flatpak, always give priority to APT/.deb offcial packages.

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Ubuntu Budgie includes this very handy app “Welcome to Budgie”. It is a welcome screen application to greet new users on their first login. Those who follow the instructions and recommendations of the app will learn, among other things, that Ubuntu Budgie comes with the Software Center. Users who want to use snaps and flatpaks in addition to the debs from the repositories can install the respective Software Center plugin for snap and flatpak support with one click. The installation of the Snap Store is therefore not necessary at all. If you haven’t checked out the Welcome to Budgie app yet, please do so. I can only recommend this app, it really helped me when I was new to Ubuntu Budgie.

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+1 to this.

A little off topic, sorry, but…
I know different people have different views of snaps, but definitely for a new Budgie user, Budgie Welcome is an excellent app. When I first switched to Budgie, I sort of ignored this. (Yeah, I’m that guy who closes all the initial welcome screens and unchecks the “show tips” boxes before I even read any of them.) Later, I found it answered a lot of the initial questions I had, or simplified some of the things I was doing, especially with the previews of the applets, themes, and layouts. So I agree 100%.

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Well I use some app’s as snap - but to be fully happy with a snap, you’ll have to check many more things than with a good regular legacy .deb

And these things to check are nowhere friendly explained :

⋅ no invitation at launch of a snap to correctly set authorizations according to your needs,
⋅ no words about that in either gnome-software or snap-store or budgie-welcome
⋅ if you’re keen on playing with gtk-themes to customize your desktop, no mention about suggesting to install those gtk-themes also as snap to keep styles aligned
⋅ many plugins don’t work in snap web-browsers ( no host-messaging )
⋅ any app with a plugin system will require special attention
⋅ any app ( or plugin ) usually needing access to /tmp may require workaround ( as /tmp can’t be accessed by snap )
⋅ if you’re used to place personal data in a location at the root of your system ( quite common but bad habit ) snap may never access those ( workarounds exist but go against initial so called safety design )
snap use more storage because of their snapshots and kept-versions systems ( good ideas, but once again nowhere explained to final user )

These are parts of the reasons I still won’t advice snap for a newcomer. I’ve been using *buntu for more than ten years and I consider snap are for geeks ( I am a little ).

All those things are known to snapcrafters and some are acknowledged. Some.

tl;dr for peace of mind don’t use snap-store. Use synaptic or maybe gnome-software without snap nor flatpak plugins.

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