Snaps

Snap is the name of Ubuntu’s native container format for applications. Snaps are seamlessly integrated into every Ubuntu system and receive automatic updates from the preconfigured Snapcraft.io repository.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Container Formats

Snaps have similar advantages to their competing format, Flatpaks:

  • Security: Applications run in a sandbox. Similar to smartphones, access to the file system, location services, etc., can be restricted.
  • Escape from Dependency Hell: Applications are packaged with all the necessary libraries inside the container, so they work across different distributions and versions.
  • Relief for Developers: Instead of building and maintaining packages for individual distribution formats (deb, rpm, apk, etc.), developers only need to provide the Snap.
  • Up-to-date Software: Although there are many more deb packages than Snaps, some applications are only offered as Snaps or are available in newer versions as Snaps than their older packaged counterparts.

However, this also leads to some disadvantages:

  • Size: Snaps are significantly larger than traditional deb packages because they must include all the libraries required for their function.
  • Potential Unreliability: Unlike packages controlled by maintainers, Snaps are managed by developers or third parties. They can be abandoned or even used for malware distribution .

Crypto scams raising security issues

Fraudulent crypto wallet apps have appeared multiple times in the Snap Store. In one case, $490,000 was stolen; in another, scammers took over the domain of a former Snap publisher and thus their account to continue their scheme under a new guise. All of this has been documented by a former Canonical employee.

In summary, similar caution is advised before installing Snaps as with using PPAs and third-party sources. Despite automated checks and — since the crypto scams — reviews by real people, only Snaps from trusted sources are truly safe:

  • “Official” Snaps: The program’s or publisher’s homepage should provide a download link pointing to the Snap Store. Well-known official Snaps come from Spotify, Microsoft (VS Code), and Google (Cloud SDK).
  • Source “Snapcrafters”: Snaps marked with this source indication can be assumed to be created by Canonical employees or well-known community members.
  • Verified sources are marked with a green badge.

Installing Snaps from the App Center

On the Ubuntu desktop, Snaps are offered alongside the traditional deb packages in the App Center, the graphical software management tool. Some applications are available both as Snaps and as traditional packages. In such cases, you should carefully consider which version you want. The search in the App Center can also be specifically filtered by “Debian packages” or “Snaps.” Some snaps come in stable, beta or edge versions. You should prefer the stable version to the development versions.

Certain core applications like the browsers Firefox and Chromium or the email program Thunderbird have been installed by Ubuntu as Snaps by default for several years. It goes so far that even running

$ apt install firefox

on the command line does not install the Deb package, but the Snap instead. Here, your only option is to set up Mozilla’s own package source (yes, Mozilla builds its own Deb packages) and use Apt pinning to configure the package management so that Firefox is installed from the alternative source.

Snap critique

Within the notoriously contentious Linux community, there are a few particularly vocal critics who have nothing good to say about Snaps. Main points of criticism are directed at the Snap Store, which is a centralized entity (in contrast to the potentially decentralized distribution of Flatpaks) and whose code is not completely open source. Snaps are, according to common criticism, just another unilateral effort by Canonical. While some arguments are basically correct, others are typical Canonical bashing. On a standard Ubuntu system, you certainly cannot avoid Snaps anyway.

Managing Snaps from the Command Line

The basics are similar to the usage of Debian’s apt tool:

$ snap install <snap-name>
$ snap remove <snap-name>

To get a list of all snaps installed:

$ snap list

Snaps also save snapshots before they are updated or uninstalled. Snapshots include user settings and application data and are deleted by default after 31 days. To manually delete a snapshot, proceed as follows:

$ snap saved # alle Snapshots mit ihren IDs listen
$ snap forget <id-Nummer> # einen Snapshot löschen

When uninstalling a snap, a final snapshot is created. This can be prevented with the purge option:

snap remove --purge <snap-name>