Is it me or Ubuntu secretly replaces DEB Firefox with Snap Firefox?

[sourov@lemm.ee]

After creating a fresh installation of Ubuntu 24.04, I installed DEB Firefox from APT by following Mozilla's instructions from here. But I noticed that it was secretly replaced with Snap Firefox. I was able to verify this by checking the About Firefox page. This is the third time I noticed this.

[strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show]

They started doing that in a couple of years back. Saw quite a bit of backlash in the Linux news media at the time.

[thingsiplay@beehaw.org]

It's a known and documented issue that Ubuntu does. They secretly install the Snap version, even if you tried to install the Deb package. This is an issue since years: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1345385/how-can-i-stop-apt-from-installing-snap-packages (posted 3 years and 7 months ago)

[mynameisrichard@lemmy.ml]

Not secretly, no.

[bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de]

It is one of the reasons many people turn away from Ubuntu.

[accideath@lemmy.world]

Wasn’t that one of the main critiques of snap/ubuntu/canonical a few years ago already?

Among my personal dislike for its shade of purple, that has been my primary reason to not recommend ubuntu for a while, at least.

[laintrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

Jesus Christ this is Windows-tier insane computing behaviour from Ubuntu. Fuck Ubuntu.

[dirk@lemmy.ml]

Ubuntu uses Snap as first-class method to install software. So if a piece of software is available as DEB or Snap, Ubuntu will always use Snap.

[dbkblk@lemmy.world]

Switch to Debian and you'll be fine

[isokiero@sopuli.xyz]

But it's not obvious either. When I say 'apt install firefox', specially after adding their repository to sources.list, I'd expect to get a .deb from mozilla. Silently overriding my commands rubs me in a very wrong way.

[sourov@lemm.ee]

I'm aware that when the user runs(without adding Mozilla's apt repository),

sudo apt install firefox

the snap version of Firefox is installed. But I never heard that, though APT is configured to install Firefox from Mozilla's repository, the DEB version will be uninstalled and the Snap version will be installed.

[sourov@lemm.ee]

I’m aware that when the user runs(without adding Mozilla’s apt repository),

sudo apt install firefox

the snap version of Firefox is installed. But I never heard that, though APT is configured to install Firefox from Mozilla’s repository, the DEB version will be uninstalled and the Snap version will be installed.

[sourov@lemm.ee]

My problem is not like that. I’m aware that when the user runs(without adding Mozilla’s apt repository),

sudo apt install firefox

the snap version of Firefox is installed. But I never heard that, though APT is configured to install Firefox from Mozilla’s repository, the DEB version will be uninstalled and the Snap version will be installed.

[sourov@lemm.ee]

Since when this became a known thing? I'm aware that the snap version is installed when the user is trying to install the deb version of Firefox by running,

sudo apt install firefox

But I never heard that the installed DEB version of Firefox is replaced by Snap version of Firefox.

[thingsiplay@beehaw.org]

Yes, that's the exact issue. Ubuntu does that for years. You use apt to install deb, but Ubuntu installs silently the Snap version. The article I linked was talking about that almost 4 years ago and talks about how to stop that. It's an old issue not many are aware off.

[scrollone@feddit.it]

Thanks. I hate snaps. I'll probably just stop using Ubuntu.

[routhinator@startrek.website]

The deb version is a pointer to the snap in their repos. Nothings being replaced, it no longer exists. The deb version of Firefox in Ubuntu repos is a wrapper that installs snap and has no binaries in it. Has been for 3 years or so.

[frederic@beehaw.org]

One of the reason I moved to MX Linux, it is Debian based, always latest everything, like 6.12.11 kernel, my FF just got updated to 135.0, and it is no systemd, no flatpak, no snap, everything is DEB, and stable.

[grumpyduckling@sh.itjust.works]

For awhile I was getting firefox crashes in Mint all the time. Turns out it was the snap version being unstable.

[yozul@beehaw.org]

The whole apt ecosystem is kind of a mess, if you ask me. Debian stable updates on archeological timescales, Debian testing just isn't a very good rolling release disto, you're better off with Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed if you want to actually use a rolling release as a daily driver, Ubuntu is a mess of annoying corporate decisions I hate from Canonical, and all the others are all just kind of disjointed in how they try to fix those issues.

My personal favorite is Mint. They just try to make Ubuntu with some classic, boring desktop design and minus the more controversial Canonical decisions, but obviously that's not everyone's cup of tea. I dunno, there is no perfect distro, you just have to find the one that for you it takes the least amount of effort to fix. Ubuntu really just kind of makes it a pain in the butt to fix all their weirdness though.