Ubuntu's Mozillateam PPA now forcing users over to snap install for Firefox.

Yeah they’re all in on snaps. Vote with your distro choice.

Imagine having to fight your OS to do what you want. True Windows experience.

You know what, enough is enough. Snaps run like shit in my system (IDK/DC why), I hate companies forcing their shit down my throat, and I was planning a clean reinstall anyway from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04. Might as well use the opportunity to go back to Debian. Or Mint. Or Mint Debian Edition. Who knows.

Next on the news, Ubuntu ("humanity") gets renamed to Amasimba ("shit"). /s

https://www.debian.org/download

There's a simple reason why Mozilla/canonical does this and that is security fixes. Due to the difference in support cycles of Firefox and Ubuntu LTS versions fixes would have to be manually backported to the system Firefox version and newer versions won't run due to library dependencies. Snap solves all of that.

Don't get me wrong though, snap is still terrible, but other than flatpak or doing the work of backporting it's the only option to get security fixes to Ubuntu

I warned you guys. "It's so easy, just do these three steps if you don't like snaps" but then later they tighten the vise

There are several high quality community run distributions which aren't beholden to corporate tools.

Hot take: PPAs suck and snaps/flatpaks are better.

With PPAs, inevitably some repo that hasn’t been updated since 2015 causes dependency conflicts and you have to sit there and troubleshoot, or pick between the software you need and actually having an OS that’s not EOL. With snaps, you can keep your decade old dependencies all bundled up and still upgrade your system even if the package maintainer has abandoned it.

I like the approach Pop OS takes. Their software store lets you choose between deb or flatpak when you install software. I've had issues with flatpak versions of some software, and flipping to the deb package usually fixes it.

LibreWolf is a Firefox fork with features removed which we don't want (Telemetry, Pocket, ...) and a few (privacy) features enabled (which can be deactivated if they're too annoying). I didn't had any issues with Firefox extensions as well.

I'm currently using it on Debian and it runs smoothly. Recent Ubuntu versions are also supported and you can install them via your package manager, see here.

If you don't embrace snaps just don't use Ubuntu.

I stopped using Ubuntu because of snap a while ago. I tend to run Linux on older machines and flat packs tend to take much longer to load than native apps. I get that they have their purpose but I would prefer to choose to use rather than be forced. I’m currently trying out POP_OS! and it’s a welcome flavor of Ubuntu

Time to switch to Mint ( or Debian ). I have not like Ubuntu for a while but this forced match to snaps seems too much.

I use Arch myself. I have been considering trying Debian Stable with Distrobox / Arch. The stability of Debian with a totally current and massive package inventory ( thank you AUR ) sounds like perhaps the best of all worlds.

yay! another company damaging itself!

I use the binary provided by Mozilla at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

I even wrote an installation script that takes care of it all. (For amd64, not arm64. I'm not sure if they provide a stand-alone arm build.)

I'm a bit confused to see that the hate falls entirely on ubuntu. Isn't the change in the ppa of mozillateam, owned by mozilla?

Edit: It seems that mozillateam is actually ubuntu.

What's up with the hate on snaps, again, please anyone?

Ubuntu was my first-ever training-wheels gateway to Linux. I started from 8.04 Hardy Heron, and it felt like such a counter-culture move back then and I wanted to be part of the 'cool' edgy goth kids that DGAF about the mainstream normies.

15 years later, I still daily-drive windows, but I have many linux boxes for various specialist use-cases, mainly for scripting or self-hosting services, and still have 22.04 server versions running here and there. But this will be my last version of Ubuntu, and the only reason its still there is because migrating them is going to be no fun.

The Ubuntu today feels like a completely different animal than when I started. My breaking point was the 'upgrade to pro' message on every apt run. I DON'T WANT TO SIGN UP FOR YET ANOTHER METERED ACCOUNT. I use Linux to escape all the mainstream commercialism and monetization once in a while when I'm up for it. Next thing I know, it starts popping up in Linux OS's and even terminals asking me to login with an account so that I can be monetized.

Don't get me wrong, I know people need to eat and companies need revenue streams to pay their staff. Linux was my occasional escape back to my engineering and tinkering roots, but corporatism is creeping in like what happens to all good things (eventually).

Ubuntu being Ubloatu.

Seems like Canonical wants to push snaps now really hard. I hope that Flathub soon implements its payment structure, before companies flock to the Canonical store.

Yeah… For years I already suggested anything good but Ubuntu to those interested in trying Linux, but now I'm going to directly tell them not to touch it. Sure, you've got lots of online discussions from the past 20-ish years of people teaching each other how to install PPAs for up-to-date versions of programs or drivers and that's sweet. But how about a distro where that stuff is just available out of the box and one that doesn't force you to use snaps as if they didn't cause issues left and right?

Yeah, snaps are garbage as long as canonical keeps the backend locked. Better to switch to a more userfriendly distro. If you want to stay in the deb ecosystem ... maybe go with something like Mint or Pop!_OS or debian (testing)

Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep my eyes open. Perhaps it’s time to start distro-hopping.

They are mostly Mozilla members, not Ubuntu members, who are responsible for the PPA. Are you sure, that your complaints and grievances are directed to the right address? See here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Contacts

Well fuck snaps. Been using ubuntu for over 15 years and finally starting to move elsewhere, begrudgingly. Finally have had enough after latest lts release.

I get that people don't like being forced, but otherwise I couldn't care less about Firefox snap vs deb. All problems I once had have been ironed out. On the contrary, I like sticking to the "recommended" path with more developer focus and hopefully higher stability. For my usecases I have zero problems with snap.

You may need to move away from Ubuntu to an Ubuntu-based distro. Pop!_OS still packages firefox as a deb

Firefox snap on Ubuntu is still slow to start after all this time. The binary from Mozilla starts nearly instantly.

@PseudoSpock add Linux Mint repository and install Firefox from there, as described here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1386738/how-to-install-chromium-from-the-linux-mint-repositories-in-ubuntu
Or switch to Linux Mint entirely, like I did :ablobcatbongo:

The last time I had to deal with Firefox-Snap on a fresh Ubuntu install, it kept crashing on launch. Grabbed a tarball and that justworks (TM). That was around a year ago. Hopefully the situation has gotten better.

This may be caused by pinned versions or preferences not being setup correctly in your apt config, rather than a problem with the PPA. It could have been caused by the recent 117 update.

In /etc/apt/preferences.d/ you can create files to control which versions and releases are used for which packages. This is how linux mint prevents snap from getting in, (even though they package their own firefox with its own customizations). Setting up something like:

Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

and

Package: firefox
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -10

should get it working better for any further upgrades

What PPA was it? I'm using this one and it seems to be still native. http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt

That said - I'm experimenting with NixOS to move to.

They don’t work. I am on arm and need to add in widevine. Can’t from a snap or flatpak.

Have you had any dealings with the FSF? “Forcing users” is standard operating procedure.

All distros make choices for their users. In fact, what applications are available in what repositories via what methods is practically the defining feature of a distribution. That in itself is not what bugs me about Ubuntu. It is the choices they make that bug me. That is why I do not use Ubuntu.

Question: Is this going to also apply to Linux Mint and other Ubuntu/Debian cousin distros?

You could install the flatpak version...

I use Linux in all my machines, currently: LMDE, Debian, Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Fedora and Linux Mint. Yeah, I just realized I stopped using Ubuntu a couple of years ago.

Already started my EndeavourOS vm last night. :)

Same for Chrome

The Debian package has different lib version dependencies than Ubuntu has. :(

Thank you, but no. I have the pinning correct. The ppa has turned to the dark side.

I've been having no issues with the Firefox snap on Ubuntu 22.04lts since I upgraded last month.

Nothing stopping anyone from installing by any other means though. This is just Canonical forcing their official channels to make sure they are pushing security fixes as fast as possible to desktop users.

Hear me out, why not just use snap?

I use snaps for Spotify and Firefox. I know that it's "forcing" something on users in an ecosystem where things should never be forced on you but as long as they work, I just don't want to fight them anymore.