Snap has an issue on certain Linux distributions (including Fedora and Arch) in which many applications render tofu characters (□□□□□) instead of text.
Canonical needs to invest in compatibility if it wants Snap to be adopted in distributions other than Ubuntu. Flatpak doesn't have this issue, and unlike Snap, its server implementation is decentralized, free, and open source.
Isn't flatpack designed from the point of Desktop users (GNOME) where snaps are designed with a server in mind? This would mean that are very different and you can't just substitute them.
While there are Snaps for server software, Snaps are marketed as a way to publish applications "for desktop, cloud, and Internet of Things" "across Linux on any distribution or version" - and users expect Snap applications to work properly on all Linux distributions, not just Ubuntu. Otherwise, developers could just publish a .deb package for Ubuntu like they did before.
Yes, Flatpak is targeted to desktop applications while Snap has a broader scope, but it's questionable whether Snap's mandatory automatic updates are desirable in a server environment.
My point was about making clear that snap is not a flatpack clone, the 2 projects were started from 2 different perspective and have different architectures, just wanted to inform some people that would think that are the exact same thing and Canonical can JUST drop snap and adopt flatpack.
Edit: about autoupdates, I agree, the user should always have the choice.
I don’t even know how’s it’s questionable. Every single update we do to prod gets regression tested except for “cross yer fingers” 0-days that we are exposed to.
Snap's automatic updates apply to major versions as well as minor versions. Major version upgrades in an automatic update could bring breaking changes or require manual configuration at an inconvenient time, and this is precisely what server administrators want to avoid.
https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/snapped-app-not-loading-fonts-o...
Canonical needs to invest in compatibility if it wants Snap to be adopted in distributions other than Ubuntu. Flatpak doesn't have this issue, and unlike Snap, its server implementation is decentralized, free, and open source.