Linux Mint 20 Blocks Unsolicited Installation of Ubuntu’s Snap – Update

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The upcoming Linux Mint 20 will block the installation of Ubuntu’s Snap via APT packages. Snap would install itself through the Chromium package since Ubuntu 20.04, without users’ consent. Users can still install Snap manually.

Snap is an alternative way to install Linux applications. It is developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. The Linux Mint development team made the decision known in a blog post. The Linux distribution already didn’t come with Snap packages pre-installed, but in the upcoming Linux Mint 20 release, the team is taking some extra measures. For example, APT packages cannot install Snap on users’ systems without permission.

Linux Mint’s lead developer, Clement Lefebvre, already expressed concerns about Snap in July 2019. Canonical would have planned to swap the Google Chromium package in Ubuntu’s package base with an empty package, which in turn installs the Snap version of the web browser. This would make Snap a requirement for users, and it would install itself without users’ consent, the developer writes. Users who already have Chromium installed on their system would also be transferred to the Snap variant that way when the application is updated. “This breaks a promise from Snap developers that it would never replace APT.”

Canonical has therefore replaced the Chromium package in question in the package base of Ubuntu 20.04, Lefebvre reports. “The Chromium package is indeed empty, and now acts as a backdoor by connecting computers to the Ubuntu Store without permission.” Users also cannot “check, hold or modify” installed Snap packages, Lefebvre writes. According to him, Snap is comparable to commercial, closed solutions.

It is partly for these reasons that Mint’s development team has decided to take measures. For example, according to the developer, Chromium will not be an empty package that installs the Snap daemon. Instead, the team replaces this package with an “empty package that tells users why it’s empty, and provides instructions on how to install Chromium.” Also, APT packages cannot install the Snap daemon by default. Users can choose to install Snap manually.

Canonical itself wrote a blog post in October in which the company explains the reason for the transition from Chromium to Snap. For example, the developer cites the reason that ‘maintaining a single release takes a lot of time’, because ‘regular’ packages have to be built for each separate Ubuntu release, including LTS and non-LTS releases. However, a Snap package works with all the different releases. In addition, the company states that the impact of the transition is less, because Chromium is not the default browser for Ubuntu.

Update, 17:18: Canonical previously wrote a blog post in which the company gives reasons for the transition from the Chromium package to Snap. This has been added to the article.

The Cinnamon version of Linux Mint 19.3. Image via Linux Mint

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