Developer of popular password manager to drop Ubuntu Snap packaging
KeePassXC developer refers to praise of Snap as "a bad joke."
Ubuntu is continuing to experience negative blowback from increasing their promotion and dependency on Snap packaging — and resolutely stating they will not add support for rival packaging format “Flatpak” to their Linux distribution.
Not only has a former Canonical employee (the former, official Ubuntu Snap advocate) developed “Unsnap" to help people stop using Snap… but now…
The developer of the popular password manager, KeePassXC, has responded with the following statement to the Ubuntu leader’s declaration of the superiority of Snap packaging:
“This must be a bad joke. There is nothing ‘simple’ about Snaps and we are moving away from them for exactly that reason.”
That’s not a small statement.
Without support from key applications (of which KeePassXC would count among them), Ubuntu is going to experience continued loss of userbase.
Last week I made the following prediction:
My prediction: Ubuntu will see a (small but noteworthy) rebounding of market-share after they completely remove Snap from the distribution and spend a release cycle focusing on the issues that have been driving people away.
I would like to make a minor addition to that prediction: If this sort of thing continues — developers actively shunning Snap packaging — Ubuntu will remove Snap packaging from their Linux distribution within the year, and adopt Flatpak. Possibly as early as the next release, coming in 6 months.
And, quite honestly, I truly hope that happens quickly. Ubuntu is, in so many ways, a truly excellent distribution of Linux. With Ubuntu marketshare in a nosedive — in part, it appears, because of Snap — time is of the essence.
