i have just come back to Zorin pro and i am wondering about snap apps , have heard they are not safe , but i think Zorin has then installed ,
are they safe Y/N
The problem with snaps (and flatpaks) is they are not integral to the system. I usually remove both snap and flatpak post install.
They are safe, just annoying.
It depends on your needs. This is an opinion topic and in asking, you will get opinions. Some will be informed opinions.
Zorin OS comes with no Snap Applications installed by default, but it does contain the means to support and install Snaps.
In this way, the end user can choose.
Snap packages run fully containerized and do not launch, but instead are Mounted to the system. Since they are containerized, they cannot communicate with the system, which means some Snap packages cannot actually operate the way they are supposed to. This is safe as it is not dangerous, but useless to the user.
Because they cannot communicate with the system, they cannot rely on system packages as dependencies, so they duplicate dependencies which is Bloat on a system, taking up much more space than a standard package would that can and does rely on already existing dependencies.
Because Snaps are mounted in an integrated self contained system, removing the entirety of them can feel like pulling teeth.
You can remove a Snap package with one terminal command.
However, to remove more than that, you must unmount it, then remove the mounting process, then remove the parent package. It must be done in the correct order, or it fails.
Which makes many users, self included, shy of its deeply integrated ways that resist user removal.
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thank you for all the info , will stay away from them
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The two browsers I use and the office suite both come from: snapcraft.io
Allowing for quick updates (--> snapd) and increasing the level of security (--> the container).
In this case, it may also be necessary to consider avoiding: flathub.org
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Thanks for posting a counter to some of our expressions.
Yes, I am a person that avoids Snap and Flatpak - for well documented reasons.
However, they do have their upsides and having a fair and balanced covering of each is the best way to help someone to make an informed decision.
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You don't have to. When Snaps work for You, You an use them. I don't use them because I have made the Experience in the Past of a weak Performance and I don't like how Ubuntu is forcing it. So, I use .deb and Flatpak. But when it runs fine and do what it should do for You, fell free to use it.
Snaps and flatpaks are both fine. I recently decided to prefer flatpaks because there's a lot of snap and flatpak apps that are unverified "wrappers" of other apps. The upside of choosing a flatpak is I can review the wrapper source code before I install the app to be sure there's nothing nefarious in it. Snaps, on the other hand, do not allow you to see the source code.
There is one little thing that bothers me about Flathub.
Unlike its British counterpart, I couldn’t find any contact address (--> from real life, not digital).
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