Despite putting so much weight behind Snap, Ubuntu continues to lose in the ‘universal Linux packaging’ race.
While all sorts of distros are adopting Fedora’s Flatpak, Ubuntu’s Snap is being shunned even by Ubuntu-based distros like Linux Mint and Elementary OS.
Nitrux, Vanilla, gLinux, and many more distros have abandoned Ubuntu for Debian, and Snap likely played a role in the decision making.
This continued rejection has discouraged the Snap team, who worked hard to coerce people into liking Snap by disguising Snap apps as eligible packages.
So, in a recent discussion at UbuntuCon, Canonical’s management decided to phase out development of Snap and its integration into the Ubuntu kernel.
After initial resistance, some Linux users grew to like Snap, just as few people joined Unity. This is a scary situation for us. From Ubuntu One to Unity to Mir, we’ve abandoned projects in the past. We can do it again for the greater good.
Development stops immediately and work will begin to decouple Snap from Ubuntu. The next LTS release, 24.04 Naughty Nightingale, will see no trace of Snap.
Not everyone is happy with the decision, of course.
In an anonymous Reddit post, a Snap developer shares:
Snap is a craft and we’ve crafted the Snap to perfection. We work so hard that if someone searches for ‘how to install xyz app on linux’, the Snapcraft pages come up first to suggest using Snap packages. And now our effort is being scrapped in a Snap.
Canonical’s management is aware of the concern. They are considering opening up Snap so that others can pick up the project and continue development, like Ubuntu Touch and Unity.
If someone wants to develop an ‘Ubuntu Snap Remix’, we might even consider giving it official flavor status, Canonical revealed.
This decision has left all Snap fans in shock and denial. But the decision has already been made and this date will become part of history. Mark the date.
You can read the official discussion and announcement on the page below.
