Today in "fuck cloud dependence"
Jul. 30th, 2020 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brin_bellway[mild cw: discourse]
I've been reading up on the Snap discourse (introduction). And true, I *am* concerned about a possible trend towards walled-garden-ness, and how Canonical's apparent answer to [only being able to get snaps through a place they control] is to graciously allow just anyone into that space *without really making a distinction* between official and unofficial software, and if Canonical doesn't shape up I might try Mint on my next laptop migration (doesn't seem urgent enough to do it on a computer that already has everything in place).
However, the people saying that Flatpak is strictly superior and more autonomy-respecting and everybody should just use that boggle me.
I'll buy that Flatpak has the *potential* to become more autonomy-respecting (although so does Snap), but recently I was looking up how to install flatpaks without a live Internet connection and apparently the answer is "with extreme difficulty, if it's even possible at all". Users that I'm pretty sure are more tech-savvy than I am beat their heads against the wall for over a week and eventually gave up.
I have a cache of .deb files, which updates itself at the press of a few buttons †. I have a cache of .snap/.assert pairs. I even have a small cache of AppImages. But I don't have a cache of flatpaks, and if they don't fix their shit I never will.
Being unable to freely choose to [not install]/[not spend background data on fetching] a particular version of a program is bad for autonomy, yes (although I note that by default Snap does at least keep around the prior two revisions of a program and offer the option of later downgrading to them, unlike some app stores I've had to put up with). But being unable to freely choose *to install a program at all*, being forever dependent on someone else to provide you with installation files no matter how far in advance you foresaw that you might need them, *that* is unacceptable.
(Meanwhile, AppImages are *too* isolated: they don't even *notify* you of updates, and they're scattered all over the Web depending on who made them.)
---
The idea of containerisation has promise, but as it stands I think *all* of the major players have fairly serious flaws. I look forward to seeing what shakes out of them in the next year or three.
---
†Turns out a Cube-Get project can't *install* automatically on any computer other than the one it was set up for--not even a computer running the same version of the same OS with the exact same set of packages installed--but you can still crack the project open to get at the sweet juicy .deb files inside, then install them manually with dpkg. ↩
I've been reading up on the Snap discourse (introduction). And true, I *am* concerned about a possible trend towards walled-garden-ness, and how Canonical's apparent answer to [only being able to get snaps through a place they control] is to graciously allow just anyone into that space *without really making a distinction* between official and unofficial software, and if Canonical doesn't shape up I might try Mint on my next laptop migration (doesn't seem urgent enough to do it on a computer that already has everything in place).
However, the people saying that Flatpak is strictly superior and more autonomy-respecting and everybody should just use that boggle me.
I'll buy that Flatpak has the *potential* to become more autonomy-respecting (although so does Snap), but recently I was looking up how to install flatpaks without a live Internet connection and apparently the answer is "with extreme difficulty, if it's even possible at all". Users that I'm pretty sure are more tech-savvy than I am beat their heads against the wall for over a week and eventually gave up.
I have a cache of .deb files, which updates itself at the press of a few buttons †. I have a cache of .snap/.assert pairs. I even have a small cache of AppImages. But I don't have a cache of flatpaks, and if they don't fix their shit I never will.
Being unable to freely choose to [not install]/[not spend background data on fetching] a particular version of a program is bad for autonomy, yes (although I note that by default Snap does at least keep around the prior two revisions of a program and offer the option of later downgrading to them, unlike some app stores I've had to put up with). But being unable to freely choose *to install a program at all*, being forever dependent on someone else to provide you with installation files no matter how far in advance you foresaw that you might need them, *that* is unacceptable.
(Meanwhile, AppImages are *too* isolated: they don't even *notify* you of updates, and they're scattered all over the Web depending on who made them.)
---
The idea of containerisation has promise, but as it stands I think *all* of the major players have fairly serious flaws. I look forward to seeing what shakes out of them in the next year or three.
---
†Turns out a Cube-Get project can't *install* automatically on any computer other than the one it was set up for--not even a computer running the same version of the same OS with the exact same set of packages installed--but you can still crack the project open to get at the sweet juicy .deb files inside, then install them manually with dpkg. ↩
