I had installed the apt version of Firefox on Zorin 18.
Today, Firefox takes a long time to open, and I find that it looks slightly different, and the taskbar pin has changed.
Checking the Help > About dialog shows that the snap version (canonical-002) has suddenly taken over; causing havoc with extensions (they have essentially been reset), and is much slower to startup.
I'm not a newbie to computers. I've been an IT consultant for 25+ years, and have used Linux on and off (mostly on, recently) for at least the last 10 years.
Shenanigans like the above are why people are turning away from Microsoft. To see it happen here is an epic disgrace.
This is not a Zorin OS decision, but a Canonical decision. When Zorin OS set Firefox as the default browser, it selected a proper apt package.
However, due to Firefox changes to their privacy policy resulting in a lot of user concerns, the ZorinGroup decided to change the default browser, dropping FireFox.
Firefox now defaults to Canonicals supply. Canonical, the company that makes Ubuntu, also created Snap.
And... Like Microsoft, they want to assert control by patching the Firefox source to redirect the APT package to instead install Snap, Snapd and Firefox as a mounted snap package.
This is a disgrace and Canonical is sticking to their guns on this issue, despite taking a lot of user heat for it.
Yes, that Canonical make this is true. They do that since Ubuntu 22.04. But Zorin have putted in a Workaround to install the .deb Package of Firefox in Zorin 18. When You are in Gnome Software, search for Firefox and choose from the List of available Packages the Zorin APT Entry it should add the Mozilla-own Repo and install Firefox as .deb from that.
I suspect the updates (from Main Server=Canonical) has probably been the cause.
I prefer to install tarballs (Firefox, zen (fork of Firefox), Tor), which are easy to install and avoid all this nonsense.
Hmm ... Okay, let's check something. Open Nautilus and go to /etc/apt/ and there look in the sources.list.d Folder and look if there is a mozilla.list File. And then look in the preferences.d Folder if there is a mozilla File. The Content of this File should be:
I had the apt package of Firefox already installed (via sudo apt install firefox) and have been using it for weeks.
The snap package self-installed and replaced the apt version, when (I assume) the snap package was updated (note that it's now canonical-002) with no interaction from myself.
Edit:
It's not that I can't revert; I have the knowledge and the ability to do so. But it seems somewhat fruitless when it's just as likely to happen again on the next snap update.
Yes, I could uninstall the Snap store etc. to prevent it happening again; but that's not the point.
It's supremely frustrating that this sort of behaviour is rearing it's ugly head in the Linux space.
Oh, okay. So, You had it already installed. I have it installed, too but my Updates run well - but to be fair: I don't have Snap installed. I have uninstalled it. If You don't want use Snap, You could uninstall it, too.
This is how I do it for Firefox ESR, zen, and Tor browsers. Go to the official browser site and download the .tar.bz fille. Extract the tarball in Downloads.
Open the extracted folder and look for the named launcher (firefox, zen, tor) which has a 'cog' icon. Left/double-click to launch the browser. You don't want to keep going to the Downloads folder to launch. Open Main Menu (Alacarte) and create a new entry under 'Internet'. Enter the name of the browser, Firefox, in the comment box enter 'browser' or leave blank. In the 'command' dialogue box, click on the 'browse' button on the right and select the cog icon named firefox. Next click on the blank square for the icon. On the Window that opens, click on Browse, go to the extracted folder and open the topmost folder, 'browser', then 'chrome', then 'icons', then 'default64.png'. You should now be able to launch your browser and pin to 'Dash'. Then to update in future, F10 to view menu, 'View' | 'Show menu bar' then Help | About and your browser will check for updates just like you used to do in Windows.
OK, a little off topic, but maybe just sufficiently on topic
I experimented with Kubuntu recently and i had such fun mucking around with the Snap and Flatpak versions of Firefox. I think, not sure, that the snap version took just a tiny bit longer to load.
I'm not especially fussed if mine is apt, snap, or flatpak - but i don't like the difficulty i had 'avoiding' snap. Kubuntu doesn't have flatpak enabled ootb, so i had to do that, then i had to reboot, change a setting in Discover (the software centre). That gave me the Flatpak option, but not the apt option. The Flatpak version did seem to theme better than the snap too, come to think of it. I will probably use snap and Flatpak both. But i hate that if i apt install, it will install a snap without giving me an option, i don't think it even tells you. So i could install a dozen apps, and many (most?) will be Snaps.
Oh, and in Canonical's wisdom, they create a dir: /home/d-man/snap - it's not even .snap! But it can be changed with some trickery. Fun times.
Because You added Flatpak. APT is already implemented because it is the default Package Format - or let's say one of two.
When You don't add a Repo to get Firefox as APT Package, You don't get Firefox as APT Package.
Theoretically that could be. You can only see it when You take a Look at the File Name. It has snap in the Name. But it doesn't tell You explicitly that now a Snap Package will be installed.
I decided I would give the Firefox snap a fair trial, so continued to use it for a couple of days. Performance was abysmal. As an example, apt Firefox will load Gmail instantly, and the site is immediately usable; however, snap Firefox would take 5+ seconds to load Gmail (you get Gmail's loading bar), and on page display you still need to wait another 2 or 3 seconds for the background javascript to complete before the site is usable.
So, I rolled back to apt Firefox after a couple of days.
I was good for about a week, then another snap upgrade was pushed and the pin and start menu shortcut to apt Firefox were deleted. To say I was annoyed is an understatement.
I recreated the apt Firefox shortcut and pinned it to the taskbar, continued to use the apt version and left the snap version installed.
A new snap version was pushed a couple of days ago, and again became the default (although fortunately the apt shortcuts were not deleted).
Tired of these bullshot shenanigans, I have today removed snap, and have taken steps to prevent it's automatic re-installation by following the steps on this page.
Note that at step 3.1 it's ideal to add the --purge switch to prevent the snap engine from creating a snapshot, which saves a whole lot of time. So for eg. firefox the command would be snap remove --purge firefox
Wow, that is pretty lame. I do not know why Canonical keeps screwing up with decisions like this. It's not necessarily that there's anything particularly wrong with Snap (except perhaps for Firefox in your experience), but the pushiness of it is anti-user. Linux users have a far lower tolerance threshold for anti-user behaviour than Windows users do, and we have options.
i was going to give Kubuntu a go, but maybe i should find a .deb-based distro with Plasma that enables Flatpak and disables Snap by default.
