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209

Is it me or Ubuntu secretly replaces DEB Firefox with Snap Firefox? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

146 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

(page 3) 47 comments

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

You could compile it from source yourself, and you won't even have to worry about packaging and package managers.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 months ago (15 children)

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Yes. That was the last straw for me. I switched to debian stable, and haven't looked back since

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Hah! Me too, exactly this.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Solve the problem. Drop ubunutu

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I suspect that what's happened is you installed the apt version, then at some point upgraded it and there was a version in the main repo that had a higher version number and installed the snap version. If two repositories both have a package with the same name, and no other rules in place, the higher version number wins.

If that is the case, you need to pin the firefox package to the mozilla repository. You can find more details here: https://wiki.debian.org/AptConfiguration

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (2 children)

At this point, why is anyone using Ubuntu for desktop? You have soooo many options

[+] [email protected] -6 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Because not everyone wants to spend their time babysitting an OS and Ubuntu has a 20-year track record of dependability.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While I get that, Debian fits that role extremely well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I was waiting for this! Debian is great. I used it for years. But IMO it's not polished enough for normies. The website is fugly and the onboarding funnel assumes too much knowledge. The installer, last time I tried it, was glitchy and unintuitive. I think that techies underestimate how offputting even ostensibly minor issues like this will be to ordinary users. Also, Debian has a ton of unmaintained packages (altho I gather that something is being done about this). Debian is fundamentally amateur in the best and unfortunately worst senses. I think a Linux flagship distro needs to be more pro and systematically thought out. For that, it's always going to help to have a big company or organization behind it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I agree Ubuntu is the easy choice. You can totally find a desktop you don't have to baby sit, but Ubuntu has the marketing to help you find them and feel safe.

I've had no issues with fedora, I've been running it for about a year.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I think fedora is best for user that want a recent kernel and reasonably fast update cycle (like not a year behind) but are not interested in rolling (for whatever reason ever).

I love rolling and had no issues due to rolling yet

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Exactly. But I would go further. I think Linux needs flagship distros with big solid institutions behind them, and it needs us to support those distros by using them. I know this is not an popular opinion here.

I see those flagship distros precisely as Fedora and Ubuntu.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

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

Debian testing just isn’t a very good rolling release disto

What makes you say that?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How did you get snap on mint?! 😆I once tried it as a noob and mint was always “snap bad! Don’t do this! You will regret” even on try to circumvent it 🤣

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I swear it was the default already installed. Maybe I'm misremembering.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Why even enable snaps? It's like asking to have headaches.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

Switch to Debian and you'll be fine :)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

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

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Why?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

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

It's a dilemma; most Windows and Mac users would benefit from that kind of locked-down, idiot-proof format. Even having the choice of multiple repos is too much for them. So while I personally hate it, that's what most people (i.e. non-Linux users) want and need.

I recommend Ubuntu as the beginner distro for everyone, but with the hope that they eventually drop the training wheels and switch to Debian.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

That’s why I recommend mint. You have all the benefits of ubuntu but without the corporate stuff. And flatpak instead of snap.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 3 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Not secretly, no.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago

Exactly. Enough with the inane conspiracism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (4 children)

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.

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

Well then you haven't been following it closely. As someone else said, the reason is simple: the Snap version is more recent (like it or not) and in Ubuntu apt is configured to take into account Snap packages.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

At least a few years. I switched to Linux a year ago and that was a huge consideration for me when choosing Debian over Ubuntu.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

It's more than that. Ubuntu copies the Debian repos and then applies their own changes on top. Debian has a native (DEB) Firefox package, so Ubuntu specifically has to remove it for every new version.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

It takes a little more than just adding a different repository to your package manager, you have to tell apt which to prefer:

echo '
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: -1' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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

sudo apt install firefox

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 98 points 3 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Not defending Ubuntu but wasn't this clarified to be Mozilla's deploying it via Snap and requesting to remove the apt installation?

Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yes, this is known. They do the same for Chromium. If you want a browser from ubuntu, it's going to be a snap.

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