On 4/6/21 2:49 PM, Brian wrote:
On Tue 06 Apr 2021 at 11:20:58 +0200, Yoann LE BARS wrote:
Hello everybody out there!
On 2021/04/06 at 01:53 am, Paul Johnson wrote:
There's nothing user-unfriendly about .debs. They just don't want to
maintain their software and are looking for a "fire and forget"
solution. I can't see this as anything but a bad thing, something the
world can live without.
Well, I do not like the way Ubuntu uses snaps, but there are some good
reasons to use something like snaps or flatpacks.
Even with a less careful procedure to integrate and update packages
than the one of Debian (which I like), create a new package and update
one take some time. There are several examples when a user needs a bug
fix or some functionality that packages in distributions do not provide.
In such a case, without snaps or flatpacks, the user has to compile the
program, which need some technical skills and can be sometimes really
tricky. Appimages are less interesting, as you have to update them manually.
Use parsimoniously, packages like snaps or flatpacks are something very
useful, which improve user experience even for power users. The problem
with Ubuntu is it uses way too much snaps and I do not think it is a
matter of laziness.
I had occasion to install Zoom a few weeks ago;'snap install zoom-client'.
Everything went smoothly and I quite like having this proprietary package
strictly confined.
To the respect of the producer of the Zoom, they don't try to install
rootkit stuff like Chrome does.
But I would argue that at X/Pulseaudio landscape it's impossible to
confine desktop application for real. pulseaudio allows to load plugins,
and that is remote code execution. X does not block application from
interacting with random stuff on screen (including screensaver and
password manager) so desktop isolation is fiction.
... And here the main part. I really don't want to see Linux desktop
walking Android path. Do we really need to protect address book from a
image editor or calculator? I really trust GIMP not doing anything nasty
under the hood. I don't need heavy and slow jails for it. I prefer
cooperation and trust (is Debian all about trust?).
