Agreed. Giving ISVs one format to deliver their apps to all the distributions will be a big help. To the distros as well - you don't lose users to Ubuntu because Spotify is only distributed as a deb.

For those unfamiliar with "snaps", here's a quick primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLxqdf89hRo

Google is actively working on their own kernel for their consumer facing operating systems. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Fuchsia So that "win" is going to be relatively short-lived.

There's more than one possible reason for this move, but I can't help thinking that escaping the GPL 2 with its (hardware and software) patent grab might be the biggest single reason.

Did you mean GPL3? If not, would appreciate a link on GPL2 patent issues.

GPL2 Did you Google?

Google "gpl 2 patent clause"

First result, for me: Patent clauses in software licences - software patents wiki (en.swpat.org) en.swpat.org/wiki/Patent_clauses_in_software_licences Jump to GNU GPL v2 - (See: GPLv2 and patents). See section 6 and section 7. Patent attorney Dan Ravicher argues that GPLv2 includes an implicit ...

Thanks. Had not seen patent language in GPLv2, but it was implied, https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech7.html

> The GPLv2, despite being silent with respect to patents, actually confers on its licensees more rights to a licensor’s patents than those licenses that purport to address the issue. This is the case because patent law, under the doctrine of implied license, gives to each distributee of a patented article a license from the distributor to practice any patent claims owned or held by the distributor that cover the distributed article. The implied license also extends to any patent claims owned or held by the distributor that cover “reasonably contemplated uses” of the patented article.