Gizmosmith

Snap is a failure

Ubuntu finally figured out that no one wanted the Unity desktop environment, but now they’re trying to fuck up software installation with “Snap”, which is apparently some kind of misbegotten blend of containerization and static linking.

Here’s what it looks like to the user: you install an application, like a text editor. It’s noticably slower to launch, and then go to open a file in the Documents folder in your home directory. Unfortunately, the text editor is a snap, so the Documents folder is in some random number’s home directory, not yours.

Then you delete the snap and install the text editor from a source that doesn’t use snap, and so is FUCKING COMPATIBLE WITH DIRECTORIES.

As a bonus, it runs faster now.

This feels a lot like how Firefox made a working browser, and then realized that once it was working, maintenance coding was boring and not profitable, so they divide their time between stupid but new things no one wants (Pocket) and breaking existing features (Open image in new tab).

It seems it’s never enough to do a good job, or once it’s done the project attracts useless hangers-on who have to appear to be doing something to justify their pay.