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Adios Apt and Yum? Ubuntu's Snap Apps Are Coming To Distros Everywhere (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader shares an Ars Technica report: Ubuntu's "snappy" new way of packaging applications is no longer exclusive to Ubuntu. Canonical today is announcing that snapd, the tool that allows snap packages to be installed on Ubuntu, has been ported to other Linux distributions including Debian, Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo among others. To install snap packages on non-Ubuntu distributions, Linux desktop and server users will have to first install the newly cross-platform snapd. This daemon verifies the integrity of snap packages, confines them into their own restricted space, and acts as a launcher. Instructions for creating snaps and installing snapd on a variety of distributions are available at this website. Snaps can exist on the same system as either deb or RPM packages. Snaps aren't the only new package manager for Linux distributions that aims to simplify installation of applications. There's also AppImage and OrbitalApps.
When I first tried Linux, I didn't understand the repository system. I had been so used to the Windows .exe files I didn't understand downloading my programs from a single secure repository. One day, it clicked. The repository system is so much better. No more worrying about compatibility, or someone adding malicious software to my programs. It all comes from one secure repository and is known to be compatible with my system.
In fact, that model works so well, Apple and others now use the same model. They call it an "App Store". I've even heard rumors that Microsoft wants to switch to this model
So, why is Linux going back to the old, and inferior way of doing things?
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Old does not mean bad.
Slackware is old, but certainly not a relic. And boasts a stability track-record that most other distros simply do not match. It not only adopts the unix philosophy, but embraces it so fully that the only comparable distros to it in this regard that I know of are Arch and Gentoo. Gentoo is a bit of a bitch because you have to compile everything, which can take a long time when doing system updates, and Arch is regretfully somewhat less stable than Slackware because it updates its packages so frequently (although if you are willing to risk some stability in the interests of running the bleeding edge versions of all available packages, Arch might be right up your alley).
But slackware is still being actively maintained, despite having longer release cycles than most other distros. Slackware is at a release candidate stage for 14.2 in slackware-current at the moment, and I'd be honestly quite surprised if 14.2 wasn't released sometime this summer or fall.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Well, snaps actually are trying to solve this.
Let's say you have a critical program you need for your work. And let's also say that it needs specific versions of software installed - you can't upgrade those dependencies or your risk breaking the program.
Now, all package managers have the ability to freeze a package - that is, prevent updating it. So you dutifully do it, and it works great - in the beginning. Slowly as time goes on the number of updates you get will slow to a trickle as you get more and more new packages dependent on newer versions of the dependencies. Eventually you'll get to a point where you can't install anything as what you want needs a newer version than what you have, or is dependent on things that need a newer version.
Snaps help solve that - your program can be made into a snap with the versions of libraries it needs, while the rest of your system marches forward
It doesn't matter what the application is - if it needs specific revisions of dependencies, holding back can lead to various DLL hells.
Snaps won't replace apt or yum - those tools are always going to be required. Snaps are useful for programs with a tricky set of dependencies to have them easily met