Snap is garbage - use flatpak instead

Written on by Alexander Lindner

Table of contents

Snap, why is it garbage?

Explaining in detail why snap is garbage is a bit of a task, but here are some of the reasons:

Some other reasons are given in this article: Recent snap experience is absolutely disappointing

Solution: remove the garbage and use Flatpak

First, remove all snap packages and the remove the snapd package itself:

snap list
snap remove <package>
sudo apt remove --purge --assume-yes snapd gnome-software-plugin-snap
sudo rm -rf /var/cache/snapd/
rm -rf ~/snap/ # if everything is working fine, you can remove this

If you use Firefox, use about:profiles to find the profile directory, which should be in ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/ and save the profile. You can then decide if you want to use the deb package or the flatpak package. Then, install flatpak like this:

sudo apt install flatpak gnome-software-plugin-flatpak # for gnome users
sudo apt install flatpak # for non-gnome users
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Firefox using flatpak

If you want to use the flatpak version of Firefox, you can install it with:

flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox
flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox

Firefox post-installation steps

Again, use about:profiles to find the profile directory, which should be in ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/ and copy the profile into it.

Utils

Use the snap store to install various apps, it is very easy and fun to use. Gnome users can use the gnome software center to install flatpak apps.

A very important app is Flatseal, which allows you to configure the sandboxing of flatpak apps.

flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal
flatpak run com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

This app was extremely helpful for me for using the PWA functionality of Chrome.