Wow. This thread isn't controversial at all. I haven't found a single comment making a case for Snap. It seems to be universally disliked - at least by this crowd.
I like snaps, I use them for everything I can.
- They are better confined than flatpaks, and come with a permission based model. Hence why there are some rougher edges. I appreciate the increased security.
- I appreciate the ability that when I remove a snap, the entire thing is removed with no littering.
- They are significantly easier to distribute on ubuntu than dealing with ppas or launchpad.
- They are a one-stop shop for finding the software I care about. I don't need to hit the command line, or add another repo.
- They save time and money because devs only need to support 1 base.
- I can install software on ubuntu without giving root privileges in a self-contained fashion.
Some common complains:
- The store isn't open sourced. Well yes, that is because they wasted time from the same whiny people over launchpad. Nobody else runs and supports launchpad. Hence nobody else would frankly bother running the snap store.
- People can't run their own store. Well yes, that is because Canonical learned from a decade ago with the security nightmare that is PPAs. Yea, it is a bad idea giving devs root access to 100k worth of machines to run arbitrary scripts. Also really bad UX.
-It's slow to startup with theming issues. Well the situation has improved 100x since a few years ago, and also I run an ssd, 32gb of RAM and a 3600, I don't really care for a few seconds in launch time.