GET OUT OF MY SYSTEM

I found the perfect set of instructions for enjoying the work that went into Ubuntu without dealing with snaps or canonical.

They can be found in on https://www.linuxmint.com/

checks my sexual orientation
that tracks
(my preferred distro)

I don't know why people hate snap so much and at this point I'm afraid to ask.

Recently had an issue where I deployed something with Docker but it wasn't working properly for a few people in the business. It turned out to be the people who installed Docker with Snap. The main reason to use Docker is so that it works the same across different OSs and setups, but Snap managed to come along and ruin that.
- glances around nervously
  That's why I originally installed and tried to use snap...
It's the worst possible implementation of distro independent binary delivery, highly dependent on a gazillion other things to barely operate, is counterintuitive as soon as you start using it, depends on canonical goodwill (which is always in a state of flux), actually mostly work everywhere but really only work correctly on a very limited subset of distributions, and requires a lot of work to basically achieve nothing more than what already existed OR any of the alternatives that are more lightweight, easier to implement for developers, easier to use of end users.
tl;dr: it's not great
- Basically, if a task calls for snap, use Flatpak
Close source, not easily uninstallable from an otherwise open system, dependency/the only way of using many programs. See the similarities with play services? Canonical is the Google of linux.
- Got it, thanks. I am new to Linux but it seemed like it could be alright. They talked about apps being sandboxed and containerized. Not a good thing then, I take it? Is it just bad implementation?
It basically became a meme.
- My mom always said I could be anything when I grew up!
Some people also hate systemd
- systemd is (was, at this point) a big change, but improved to the point it feels like an upgrade over older solutions.
  All the family of systemd-* services that were re-implemented for the lulz, broke existing features for years, and barelly reached the level of what they are replacing, however, are like the worst idea ever, handled by some lunatics that truly believe they can do better from scratch than simple, standard software that had decades of improvement.
  I don't see snap ever becoming better than flatpak at any point.
- Is that the older friend of snap?

Is this something that happens on Ubuntu or something? My Debian system hasn't pulled in any snap stuff to my knowledge.

Yup, it's an Ubuntu thing.
No idea why someone would run Ubuntu and then be surprised that snaps are enabled.
EDIT:
Yes, I already knew that Canonical keeps re-enabling snaps even if you uninstall/disable it - my original statement still stands.
- It's not that they're enabled, it's that they can re-enable themselves after updates even if the users disables Snaps and removes snapd.
  Had this issue with Ubuntu on my Dads laptop before I switched it to Debian.
- No idea why someone would run Ubuntu. Full Stop.
- On Ubuntu, even if you remove all snaps and snapd, apt commands are hijacked and will reinstall everything if you touch certain packages. The better solution is to not use anything from Canonical.
- Exactly. If you’re an Ubuntu user and don’t mind snaps, great. If you’re an Ubuntu user and hate snaps, why not just use one of the thousand other distros out there that don’t have snap?
- It's about Snap being an impurgeable rootkit on your machine. It's the same as Onedrive or Copilot on Windows.
- My surprise would be something like "what's snap didn't I remove whatever that was".
Around 2021, I regularly ran into this problem with the Firefox snap. It had various runtime issues, so I preferred the traditional deb package. I'd uninstall the snap then install the deb. Then, some days later, I'd find the snap was somehow installed again. This happened a few times before I realized that the deb was just installing the snap. Imo, that's not a good design. Debs should be debs and snaps should be snaps.
Anyhow, I use Arch now, btw. Much more consistent experience.
- Somewhat unorthodox but on my Deian system I've for a long time just installed the firefox tar.bz package from mozilla.org in /usr/local with /usr/local/firefox/firefox liinked to /usr/local/bin/firefox. Updated system wide whenever necessary. Lately I just installed the .deb from mozilla.org allowed it to add its' own repo to /etc/apt/sources.list.d and have been living happily after.

Debian is just Ubuntu before they add Snap.

Or, remove snap from Ubuntu:

    
# Remove snap
        if [ -n "$(which snap 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
                SNAPS=$(snap list |awk '{print $1}' |grep -v Name)
                for SNAP in ${SNAPS} do; snap remove ${SNAP}; done
                sudo systemctl stop snapd
                sudo systemctl stop snapd.socket
                sudo systemctl disable snapd
                sudo systemctl mask snapd
                sudo apt purge snapd -y
                sudo apt-mark hold snapd
                sudo cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10
EOF
                rm -rf ~/snap
                sudo rm -rf /snap
                sudo rm -rf /var/snap
                sudo rm -rf /var/lib/snapd
                # Add needed repositories
                sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa -y
                echo '
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: thunderbird
Pin: version 2:1snap*
Pin-Priority: -1
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/thunderbird
                sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps -y
        fi

That is a lot of code that could have been a single command.
- I would love to see a single command that removes snap, cleans disk, keeps snap from reinstalling, and adds repos to replace packages lost.
- replace newlines with semicolons

Almost any environment issue is because somehow snap fucked up some system configuration, and it can't be undone

on linux mint this strip is only two panels long

Snap is a pain in the ass eating the bandwidth when it's low (like in roaming). Yeah I know I should move from ubuntu !

It also eats your RAM! My VPS has 512MB and I noticed snapd was running all the time and causing my programs to get oom killed
- Wait, are you running Ubuntu on 512? Or do you actually need snap for some reason? Why run Ubuntu as your VPS?
  Sorry, I'm not too knowledgeable. Actually asking.
- It also kills validation. You think you know what's installed, but you have 4 copies of it and 3 of them have been sploited and you have no clue.
  All that shit - appimage, snaps, containers - they all hide versions and signed manifests from you while still being terrible in other ways.

The hate for snap on Linux forums always felt weird to me, I've literally never had issues with Firefox snap. I understand being frustrated with it on the principle that it feels Windows-y to force it on the system, but the Firefox snap is packaged by Mozilla and bundles the latest Mesa libraries instead of using the older libraries from the Debian repos that don't have the latest performance fixes, so its also faster than installing through .deb. And Mozilla has Debian repos for Firefox you can add to your sources.list if you really insist. There's also nothing preventing you from installing Flatpak and using that on Ubuntu.

For me it was the forced automatic updates that made me lose data or waste time numerous times. One was doing taxes, another a full rework of my LinkedIn when I was out of work. I'd complete everything on the web page, press enter, and be greeted with a page telling me to restart to continue using Firefox.
You also only have the ability to pause it, no actual stopping it.
- exactly. i don't want anything on linux to update automatically.
  i want to
  
  sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
  and watch the console go brrrrrrrr
- That's extremely weird, I've never heard of Firefox not letting you browse until you update. When snap auto-updates Firefox there's usually a notification bubble asking to close your browser to update but you can dismiss it and keep browsing in my experience.
Try to use any native extension from your browser, integrate with external password managers, or use third-party PKCS tokens, and you'll start having less fun.
i've always seen hate for it with reasons why

Tmobile has been trying to do that to me since yesterday. "Complete your setup" notification I deleted half a dozen times and the one time I mistapped brought up a bright magenta blank page but after closing I found they had shoved 8 game shortcuts into my system. Deleted those and the notification returned.had to disable the t-life notification to kill it

I'd recommend looking into LineageOS or other custom ROMs to nix that kind of bullshit

Kubuntu 25.10 minimal install doesnt put snaps on your system, a quick script later and I've got Firefox, Steam and Heroic official .deb files installed and running, then run this to make sure it never comes back:

sudo apt-mark hold snapd

Waiting for the day they finally drop it... ... like unity ... like mir ... like ubuntu mobile (or whatever it was called)

I doubt it
They are way to invested to stop now