For years, many Ubuntu users have felt that traditional .deb packages were being gradually sidelined in favor of the Snap ecosystem.
It started quietly. Double-clicking a downloaded .deb file would open it in Archive Manager instead of the installer. Then came controversial changes. Apps like Chromium, Thunderbolt and Firefox began defaulting to Snap packages, even when users tried installing them via the apt command in the terminal.
It continued further as Ubuntu introduced its new Snap Store. In Ubuntu 24.04, it ignored .deb packages completely. Double-clicking a .deb file would open the App Center, but wouldn’t actually install the package and just hang there. That behavior was later reverted after I highlighted it through It’s FOSS.
is this an Ubuntu problem that I’m too Kubuntu to understand?
Snaps have been utterly stupid. Their sandboxing means my editor apps can’t open the files in my media drive by default. It’s a file editor for fuck’s sake, it needs to be able to access my files.
I agree. Flatpaks have similar challenges. I understand the dilemma, I understand what they’re trying to do and what they’re trying to solve, but shifting responsibility for these sorts of things from “here” to “there” is not actually solving the problem it’s just moving it, and often moving it to somewhere that someone who has no business dealing with it will ultimately end up dealing with it in a way that’s even worse than what you started with.
Personally I try to be pragmatic and not ideological about software packaging. I usually prefer distro-provided deb packages whenever I can get it as a strict first-place-to-check, and I try to convince myself to use that even if it’s a somewhat older version or kind of stupidly packaged, falling back to the project’s own deb repos if they have them for more up to date versions, and if that fails I might consign myself to building from source or banging my head against a docker, unless I really absolutely need to use some other packaging option some specific reason. I’ve even used a flatpak occasionally (often for something I would like somewhat sandboxed) But snap is pretty garbage and has few redeeming features and I’ve never really felt the slightest interest in using it for any reason.
It’s a mess, but it’s a manageable mess, mostly because I’m forced to manage it whether I like it or not. This is the unfortunate reality of software packaging on Linux. With great choice comes too many choices. It’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make, because I like having choice.
I haven’t really found a DE that I like more than Unity. Basic Gnome gets close, but the ability to separate switch between programs and their windows is a big thing for me.
But, because of snap packages being annoying, I would really like to migrate away from Ubuntu. Meh.
On KDE the key combination Alt+Tilde tabs between the windows open for one program. E.g. if I have 4 firefox windows and 2 Konsole windows, if a Firefox window is active Alt+Tilde will tab through only the 4 Firefox windows, while Alt+Tab will tab through all the Firefox and Konsole windows.
the ability to separate switch between programs and their windows
What do you mean?
Anyway, Ubuntu no longer uses Unity, it’s just Gnome with extensions. There’s still community effort put into Unity and there’s an Ubuntu Unity distro.
I mean that if I have four Firefox windows open, three file manager windows open, GIMP open and Steam open and press alt+tab, I get cycled through four things: Firefox, File manager, Gimp and Steam. If I want a specific Firefox window, I first Alt+Tab to Firefox and then use Meta+Tab to cycle between the different windows of Firefox. That is incredibly convenient!
On my other computer I’m currently trying OpenSUSE, and its version of Gnome does not have the option for enabling this in the keyboard shortcuts. Not really sure if my Ubuntu really uses Unity or something else, but anyway it’s something that has a feature that makes the workflow much better.
That has been the default behaviour of GNOME for a while. I think the default keys are Alt+Tab (for applications) and Alt+` or Alt+~ (keyboard layout depending) for windows within applications.
If I’m not wrong the default shortcut to cycle between app’s windows is Alt + the_key_above_tab.
Currently I’m not in front of my computer, afterwards I’ll check shortcut name and tell you.Edit:
Inside Settings > Keyboard > Customize Shortcuts, there are:- Switch applications
- Switch windows
- Switch windows of an application
App sandboxing is stupid, those that need it need something more refined than snap or flatpack, and all others don’t actually need it, but think they do due to inexperience and end up having problems and asking for support online.
The amount of times i lost time helping someone that pinkie promised that no, i did not installed it via flatpack, but then it turns out they did and their permissions are messed up is not acceptable.
I freaking hate snap, flatpack annd sometimes noobs even attempt some docker bullshit for something that is an apt-get away smh.
These things are used as a crutch for unstable or badly supported programs. Sandboxing often creates more problems that it solves because you actually need to support the instance to do it correctly, the very problem that is attempted to solve.
