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Comment by moffkalast | Hacker News Reader

> what does snap bring that regular debian packaging does not

Snap is like using a python virtualenv, while apt is like using global pip. We all know which one of these usually results in a broken installation.

Apt debs more often than not rely on some specific version of a third party package which becomes a headache when there's another package that needs a different version of it. Snap in theory solves that, making the deps local to the package you're installing.

If I had a dollar for every time I had apt bullshit me with "requires package, but it will not be installed" or something of the sort I'd probably have something over $20 which isn't that much but still infuriatingly high.

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> We all know which one of these usually results in a broken installation.

And yet they're promoting snap.

Have they given us the ability to stop automatic updates?

It looks like Ubuntu Core lets you disable automatic updates for snaps: https://ubuntu.com/core/docs/refresh-control.

"Refresh control can be accomplished by using a gating snap"

I bet those only come from brand stores.. so $20k/year for an ability to disable updates?

Or the ability to make your own snap store.

As an alternative just package everything up in an AppImage and use a AppRun shim script.. Then just deploy the AppImage to whatever. The LXD Snap bundles quite a few things, there's no reason you couldn't do the same with AppImage.

https://xon.sh/appimage.html#building-your-own-xonsh-appimag...

https://github.com/niess/python-appimage

>If I had a dollar for every time I had apt bullshit me with "requires package, but it will not be installed" or something of the sort I'd probably have something over $20 which isn't that much but still infuriatingly high.

Completely unrelated but the exactness of this turn of phrase here delighted me so much and without your permission I’d like to steal it for my own use in my daily conversations (without credit).

It's an adaptation of Doofenshmirtz's line from Phineas and Ferb:

> "Wow! If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Right?"

My favorite distro in this regard was openSUSE, Debian and Ubuntu are #2's for me. I just can't install it anymore, it doesn't support the right drivers before the install process finishes, which causes issues. I'm not a fan of having to do anything to trick a GUI based installer to work.

Honestly wondering if a System76 box or laptop would play nicely with openSUSE.

We are talking about IoT devices where (hopefully) the company knows exactly what is installed and what not, so I don't think it is a big issue. There may still be conflicts to solve, but you can manage them when you prepare the deb package, not when you install it

I miss the days when "installing" something meant copying a file to the machine.

I don't really remember ever doing this, but I still miss it somehow.

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