Re:Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)
by imglorp on Thursday April 23, 2020 @10:38AM
(#22956514)
On that note, what requirements pushed Ubuntu to select snap over flatpack?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Snaps evolved from click packages that were developed for the Ubuntu phone. The design dates back to 2013: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-May/0370...
Flatpaks, according to Wikipedia, were first released in 2015. I don't about the current situation, but initially a bunch of features that are considered necessary for snaps were out of scope of the Flatpak project, such as IoT support.
So it wasn't so much that Ubuntu selected snaps over Flatpak. Flatpaks came along later, and Ubuntu had already invested considerable resources developing snaps.
Well for one they control it. But a good advantage that it has over flatpak is that flatpak cannot run on servers while Snap can, though it doesn't sound like it's enabled for servers in this release?
Just my guess work, but I think they are afraid that THE ONE AND ONLY compatible Linux package format will be owned by RedHat. And that "auto updating" packages in that format will usually roll through RH's servers/repos. They want to be in on the action when a standard emerges and therefor push very hard for it, ship a crap product and experience backlash.