Issues when using software from the Store

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I'm using several software packages that can be found in the new software shop too. First i thought - give it a try first before adding more and more foreign PPA repositories to my new installed ZorinOS. Each PPA could raise the risk of damaging the system because of elder versions of the software or missing dependencies and so on and so on.

So i used the store for e.g. the following packages

chromium-browser (snap)
element-desktop (flatpak)
nextcloud-client (flatpak)
keepassxc
....

Some of the packages contain a special settings button after installation for managing the snap package restrictions - good - but not good enough!

For example under element (matrix client) uploading files from the /tmp dir isn't possible because of restrictions no files for uploads are shown - /tmp dir is shown as empty. Moving the files (pdf, pics ...) to my homedir and uploads are possible. (bad thing)

Uploading files within chromium to my cloudserver via WebUI isn't possible from other directories than my homedir because of restrictions i can't manage in the store.

KeePassXC is installed but do not have the right to "talk to chromium" via KeePassXC-Browser Plugin. Not from within KeePassXC nor the settings script from the maintainers website helped with that. Snap restrictions hinder KeePassXC to communicate with chromium.

So i purged all this junk from the software store (snaps flatpaks etc.) from the newly installed system. After that i removed via sudo snap remove PACKAGE all the stuff that isn't working properly.

After a reboot i began to build up my sources.list.d directory with all needed repos and re-installed the stuff via apt-get / apt.

Everything what has been restricted is working now!
Uploads within element-desktop from /tmp dir = no problem
Uploads within nextcloud webui via chromium from different dirs than homedir = no problem

And more than that, some of the settings concerning autostart are all not working in nextcloud-client and element in the snap or flatpak versions!
Saying nextcloud "start at boot time" isn't working in the software store packages. Same with element-desktop.
-> Using the PPA files it's totaly different - all autostarts are working too.

Communication between chromium and KeePassXC-Browser = no problem

It is not a good start for a new installed ZorinOS with those frontiers.

The Store should have a very big hint to those problems.
I know that snap and flatpak are newer packages formats than *.deb (apt packages) to avoid problems with dependencies and so on.

With ZorinOS 16 seemingly everything comes via snap / flatpak with all mentioned difficulties IMHO.

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Chrissi55, I moved this thread to the Feedback Forum as a good fit. Very detailed (and valid) points about some of the limitations of Snap and Flatpak both.

Part of this is due to Canonicals "Ubuntu Software-Store" really pushing Snap... In Spite of Canonical promising in the past to not engage in this type of behavior.
Zorin OS seems to prefer Software-Store as it most resembles the Windows Store that Migrants from Windows are familiar with.

I find it personally interesting, because when I moved from Windows to Zorin OS, I found the Software Store intolerable on Zorin 15. With teaching from Swarfendor, I picked up Synaptic and after a small amount of fumbling, had it down.
I view this as a Stepping Stone. While the first take on Zorin OS may be that step from Windows to Linux, once you have taken that step, there is nothing stopping you from taking another step. And another...
I seem to treat Zorin OS as a well assembled and speedy Base, that I remove what I don't want and install what I do want. Repositories usually are no trouble for dependencies; those errors are more prevalent with installing from source or even .deb packages.

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For completition ...

I have synaptic installed on ZorinOS 16 and use it when searching additional packages for installed *deb packages e.g. chromium-browser-10ln and so on.

Further more i forgot to mention that in some cases of purged snap / flatpak files the main menue needs manual changes. So i opened thge editor for the main menue and deleted the orphaned entries for element and nextcloud manually. Otherwise the user will always see these "dead links" in the main menue although the corresponding packages are no longer installed.

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I no longer use flatpaks, snaps, appimages. My brain won't let me

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