Snap out of it

I understand appimages. I use them exclusively. Can someone explain what flatpak and SNAP are and how they work? I have autism so please be as clear and concise as possible?

Why not just stick to what we've always been doing?

1. wget something.tar.gz
2. tar something.tar.gz
3. man tar
4. tar xzf something.tar.gz
5. cd something
6. ls -al
7. ./config.sh
8. chmod +x config.sh
9. ./config.sh
10. make config
11. Try to figure out where to get some obscure dependency, with the right version number. Discover that the last depency was hosted on the dev's website that the dev self-hosted when it went belly up 5 years ago. Finally find the lib on some weird site with a TLD you could have sworn wasn't even in latin characters.
12. make config
13. make
14. Go for coffee
15. make install
16. SU root
17. make install

it's called snap cos thats what the community will do to your bones if you use it. apparently

Install from source if there isn't a repo for the software.

Linux noob here, can someone ELI5 why snaps are bad? And how does .deb works?

I don’t really like neither of the 3, personally. But I understand the need and the benefits

Native package manager > Native binaries > AppImage > Flatpak.

Yes, snap isn't even on the scale.

Native repos > AUR > compile from source > Flatpak

There is no software that is not in AUR. I use arch, BTW.

Artix repos > Arch repos > existing AUR package > create my own AUR package

No need to use any of these flatpak/appimage/snaps when I can just make a package for my distro. Most software is not difficult to package.

If you don't compile from source, do you even Linux?

I have yet to find a need to go outside of the Debian repos.

1. Compile from source
2. Find alternative
3. Deploy in VM/Docker

If I wanted snap, flatpak or appimages, I would use windows. Shared dependencies or death.

I’m currently on a atomic distro, so how I get my software from favorite to least favorite is this:

1. Flatpak
2. Appimage
3. Fedora distrobox
4. rpm-ostree

.deb first and then flatpak if not available as on deb repo or if deb version is outdated. Never used appimage or snap. Rpm just as good as deb when I use Fedora. Flatpaks are much larger in size which is why I first go with the deb version.

Nix, if not in nix pkg for nix, then nix

AUR. If it doesn't exist on AUR (very unlikely, but happens sometimes), I make a package for it.

On non-arch distros, I often use LURE.

I .... I don't have any of these problems....

Am I missing out on shit? Have I Grandpa Simpsoned?

Download the sources and build it, like Kernighan & Richie intended.

I pretty consistently find the snaps to be the best trade-off of being up-to-date and stable for me. Especially for CLI tools and services.

I hate fucking snap. It might be enough to make me switch distros if Ubuntu keeps up with it (which I am sure they intend to).

The continual "you have new snaps" or whatever it was message every time I'm just trying to have a web browser open made me eventually figure out how to install firefox for real on all of my computers.

EDIT: I think you may have convinced me to try out Debian on my next OS installation.

Appimages are crap too, but at least there is progress with AppMan, repos and that sandboxing solution.

Snaps are only sandboxed with Apparmor and snapd only allows a single repo (which contained malware multiple times) so get the hell off my lawn XD

as it should be, nobody likes proprietary vendor-locked formats that get shoved down your throat

How do you guys get software that is not in your distribution’s repositories?

Since i use a gaming arch based distro (Cachyos) the aur

AUR or flatpak.

Honestly the longer I spend daily driving Linux the more I enjoy using flatpaks...

curl

I try my hand at packaging it for my distro.

Wow a reference to those Mac Vs PC ads from like 15 years ago

AppImage, build from source, or don't bother

For some reason the first time I read it, I thought it was an "L" so now I always call them "Apple mages"

OCI

If not in Fedora repos or any Copr, then AppImage (manage using Gear Lever for that ease of use) then Flatpak

No one uses app image anymore

Snap

If it's C or C++, I get the source from the project's GitHub / GitLab / Source Hosting thing and compile it for myself.
For programming languages that I don't read, I usually use the AUR.

Also,

• GoG for games
• Xilinx website, for that one time, I got the ISE
• AppImage sometimes

Native binaries