Uninstalling Flatpak and Snapd

General Help
1

Reading another thread 'Abdulhalim' mentioned that whenever he installs
a clean install of Zorin OS he completely removes Flatpak and Snapd, which is interesting.
Wouldn't that stop you from installing certain apps?
I was wondering because I have a problem where Firefox has changed from the package I installed to the snap package.
Uninstalling flakpak and snapd, would this have stopped it from happening?

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Ah, the Firefox Issue. The Thing is: Ubuntu (the Base of Zorin) offers Firefox only as Snap Package. Even when You use the APT Version. This is only a Package what leads to the Installation of the Snap Package.

To get Firefoy as .deb, You can add the Mozilla-own Repo. When You choose the APT Package on Zorin, this should happen. If not, You can add it manually too with the Instructions of Mozilla:

It might look a bit intimitating on first View but when You follow the Description, it should go fine.

Now to Your common Questions:

For Flatpak: yes. When flatpak isn't installed, You can't install Flatpaks. For Snaps it isn't so easy. When Snap wouldn't be installed and You want install a Snap Package, Snap would be installed again with it. To avoid that, You would have to block the Installation of Snap - which leads to the Situation that You can't install Snap Packages anymore.

I personally uninstall Snap because I didn't made good Experiences with it in the Past. I use .deb/APT and Flatpak. That works for me.

When You want uninstall Flatpak and Snap, I would suggest the following Way:

  1. Check if any Snaps or Flatpaks are installed with snap list and flatpak list in Terminal. If You ses Packages, uninstall them. For Snap use the Command
    snap remove --purge [Package-Name]
    and for Flatpak use
    flatpak uninstall [Package-Name] --delete-data
  2. When all Flatpaks and Snaps are uninstalled, disable first the Snap Services:
    sudo systemctl stop snapd snapd.socket
    sudo systemctl disable snapd snapd.socket
  3. Then uninstall Snap and Flatpak with:
    sudo apt purge flatpak gnome-software-plugin-flatpak snapd gnome-software-plugin-snap
  4. Do a sudo apt autoremove to remove File Rests. But look at the List of the removing Packages before You remove them.
  5. Reboot and then You should see in Gnome Software that no longer Snap anf Flatpak as an Option is available.

The next Thing is an additional Step to avoid getting Snap over the Terminal again like mentioned above.

Open the Terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.conf

Then, You get a blank Screen. Put in this:

# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of snap,
# this file forbids snapd from being installed by APT.

Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

When done, press ctrl+o to save, Enter to confirm and ctrl+x to exit. Back in the Terminal type sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade to refresh the Sources.

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Me too.
I have limited hardware resource on my old ZorinOS laptop, so I cannot afford to have Flatpak and Snap apps bloat taking up valuable disk space. It is apt and deb only for that reason for me.
Also there are often reported issues re system integration of Snap and Flatpak apps, as they are made standalone, effectively double sandboxed surrounded by barbed wire and mine fields.

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With flatpaks it is also not so easy, when it is set as dependency for another package. When you remove flatpak, but e.g. install thunderbird, then it installs flatpak again.

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Good that You mentioned Thunderbird.

@ProfessorZorin: The Thunderbird Situation is similar to the Firefox one. By default, You get on Ubuntu 24 (the Base of Zorin 18) Thunderbird only as Snap Package, even when You install it via Terminal. In Zorin 17/Ubuntu 22.04, it was avaliable as .deb Package.

Now, the Zorin Dev's have made a Workaround and replaced that Transition to the Snap Package with a Transition to the official Flatpak Pack. So, when You type in Terminal sudo apt install thunderbird or choose in Gnome Software Thunderbird as APT Package, You get the Flatpak Version of Thunderbird.

Unfortunately, Mozilla doesn't offer a Solution like for the Firefox Browser where You can add a Repo to get the .deb Package.

But there is a Way to get it as .deb Package wit a Repo. You can add the mozillateam PPA. Don't be irritated by the Name. The PPA isn't from Mozilla. It is an Ubuntu Team who cares about the Mozilla Stuff. Over this Repo, You could get Firefox, too. From the last Time, I sued that, I know, that it is a bit adjusted with some Bookmarks from Ubuntu and Debian Websites. I don't know if it is the same nowaday.

2 Likes
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Because of Google's hooks in both Firefox and Thunderbird I prefer zen or LibreWolf which are both forks of Firefox, and Evolution instead of Thunderbird.

It is fairly easy to install browsers that come in tarball format:

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If an app is only offered as a Flatpak or Snap, which these are rather uncommon, then yes. But in most users practice, the vast majority of apps offered as flatpak or snap are also offered in the Standard APT .deb format.

8

You can also remove the runtimes and leftovers of the flatpaks with

flatpak uninstall --unused

(flatpak needs to be installed to run this command).

Another option you have beside .deb packages to install an application (if no .deb package iscavailable), are AppImages. They are portable versions which can be used on all Linux Systems.