this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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What use to be the PPA that allowed Ubuntu users to use native .deb packages for Firefox has recently changed to the same meta package that forces installation of Snap and the Firefox snap package.

I am having to remove the meta package, then re-uninstall the snap firefox, then re-uninstall Snap, then install pin the latest build I could get (firefox_116.0.3+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1_arm64.deb) to keep the native firefox build.

I'm so done with Ubuntu.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I get that people don't like being forced, but otherwise I couldn't care less about Firefox snap vs deb. All problems I once had have been ironed out. On the contrary, I like sticking to the "recommended" path with more developer focus and hopefully higher stability. For my usecases I have zero problems with snap.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it works for you, fine. I still have this bug to deal with which makes snaps completely unusable in our environment.

Maybe I should try petitioning for us to at least use Linux Mint.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same for our student PCs - As soon as the setup includes network homes snap becomes completely unusable. Applications just crash on startup because snap doesn't allow them to access the user's home directory

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yup, also student PCs with home on network share here (:

But always remember, "Snap is production ready and enterprise grade" or whatever

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep my eyes open. Perhaps it’s time to start distro-hopping.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well fuck snaps. Been using ubuntu for over 15 years and finally starting to move elsewhere, begrudgingly. Finally have had enough after latest lts release.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Come join us on NixOS, we have declarative state management and also chocolate chip cookies

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

You may need to move away from Ubuntu to an Ubuntu-based distro. Pop!_OS still packages firefox as a deb

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Firefox snap on Ubuntu is still slow to start after all this time. The binary from Mozilla starts nearly instantly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@PseudoSpock add Linux Mint repository and install Firefox from there, as described here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1386738/how-to-install-chromium-from-the-linux-mint-repositories-in-ubuntu
Or switch to Linux Mint entirely, like I did :ablobcatbongo:

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The last time I had to deal with Firefox-Snap on a fresh Ubuntu install, it kept crashing on launch. Grabbed a tarball and that justworks (TM). That was around a year ago. Hopefully the situation has gotten better.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This may be caused by pinned versions or preferences not being setup correctly in your apt config, rather than a problem with the PPA. It could have been caused by the recent 117 update.

In /etc/apt/preferences.d/ you can create files to control which versions and releases are used for which packages. This is how linux mint prevents snap from getting in, (even though they package their own firefox with its own customizations). Setting up something like:

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

and

Package: firefox
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -10

should get it working better for any further upgrades

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

What PPA was it? I'm using this one and it seems to be still native. http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt

That said - I'm experimenting with NixOS to move to.

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