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Plex for Linux Now Available as a Snap (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Today, a very popular app, Plex Media Server, gets the Snap treatment. In other words, you can install the media server program without any headaches -- right from the Snap store. "In adopting the universal Linux app packaging format, Plex will make its multimedia platform available to an ever-growing community of Linux users, including those on KDE Neon, Debian, Fedora, Manjaro, OpenSUSE, Zorin and Ubuntu. Automatic updates and rollback capabilities are staples of Snap software, meaning Plex users will always have the best and latest version running," says Canonical.
Any chance that snap will fix that minor bug that prevents snaps from running if /home is on a different volume than /?
It's just not going to happen.
Modern app appers use apps that app other apps, not LUDDITE snaps!
Apps!
Are you really just running Linux? Or are you running GNU plus LINUX?
GNU + Linux -- a winning combination!
Remember when we had the time to type out the full word? Pity we're all so busy now....
TAR.gz RPM Deb PPA flatpak Snap AUR ebuild tar.bz2. configure make make install. It's all fun in the Linux packaging factory.
I have a friend that used Snaps right when they were in beta. Last I used his PC I saw he had like 300 "Snaps" and about 70 of them were Firefox all in different containers. And Snaps don't share any files or libraries at all. So you get the bloat of one application duplicated over and over again. Like having the curl library on one computer over 500 times.
I don't know what Plex is, but I have a general question. Would anybody want an open source project to be distributed as a snap? I installed Skype on my kubuntu 18.04 system, and it insisted on it. But Skype isn't open source, so okay - it's easier for them to package it once and have it work everywhere. But in the meantime, I see that the snap has set up a loopback filesystem. In fact that conflicted with an encrypted filesystem I used to map using /dev/loop0, until I changed that. But do I really want extra filesystems showing up in the 'df' command just because I've installed a bunch of apps that come as Snaps.
Okay. Plex seems to be a server app, so maybe. But Skype - easy for them, pain in the ass for me.
I recently went to install the Atom text editor to give it a whirl. That also wanted to install as a snap. Luckily there was a regular deb available and I installed that instead. But seriously - any open source project ought to be included in the distro's repository and kept up to date there. I guess snaps could be handy for things you can't afford to keep up to date - to prevent breakage. But there are ways to prevent taking repo updates for individual apps. I guess snaps can protect you from library updates breaking things too, but seriously - open source desktop apps ought to be either less mission critical or more backward-compatible than the kinds of things that snaps are useful for. Wishful thinking?
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
Too bad you need to log in with the mothership in order to use a Plex Server as anything other than a DLNA source. Once upon a time you could use Plex within your own network without any client device being required to phone home.
Yes, I know they have free accounts for those who don't want the extra paid features. The trouble is, an account, whether free or paid, is required to do anything, even if nothing you do has the slightest need for online resources.
I'm sticking with Kodi.
In adopting the universal Linux app packaging format, ...
That may be the Canonical definition of "universal", but not really the canonical definition. Just sayin'.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Until the vulture capitalist bought in. More spyware than you can shake a stick at now. Fingers in ears devs whilst they figure out how to screw you and data mine you for cash. I bought a lifetime subscription to help out in the good old days but regret that. Have a look at Emby. Not perfect, but you are still in control.
These "universal" packages are dangerous, IMO. They include their own copies of all the dependencies required to run the app. "Great! That's so much simpler!", you say. But if these universal package formats gain wide acceptance, that could mean that 10 Snap apps could have 10 different versions of a library. What if that a vulnerability is discovered in that library?
Currently, a distro updates that library once and all native apps on that distro benefit. But with Snaps, each app would have to be updated separately, relying on (potentially) slow upstream response. In the meantime, you're vulnerable.
And how do you even audit a system that uses Snaps? Again, instead of auditing one instance of a library packaged by the distro maintainers, you'll be forced to check the dependencies included in every installed Snap. On multi-user systems, a conscientious administrator would have to scan every user home folder to do a thorough audit.
The package format isn't what makes Plex suck, and changing it won't make it suck less. Don't use plex. Don't use snaps. Don't look at this news as a validation of either. They're both traps.
At least that's what I do.
I have read here and there more frowny users that'll firejail *also the installer*, IIRC there is a detailed how-to for Steam, for instance, but at this time I cannot track it back...
Herve S.
TAR.gz RPM Deb PPA flatpak Snap AUR ebuild tar.bz2. configure make make install. It's all fun in the Linux packaging factory.
There are other actual package formats you didn't mention.
You included tar.gz and tar.bz2 and those aren't packaging formats, although they could be used for that (as well as zip). And compiling from source is not a packaging format. Sheesh.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I've tried plex and I just don't like it. I have been using serviio as my home media server for many years, and it works great.
I don't quite get SNAP.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
it's written by clueless idiots for clueless idiots. It violates just about every single packaging rule, even the ones easiest to follow.
With systemd required, plex will not be installable in Devuan, Artix and other distros free of systemd. Pathetic.