An all-snap Ubuntu desktop is coming — and sooner than you might think!
According to Canonical’s Oliver Grawert, the next long-term support release of Ubuntu will be available to download in 2 versions: a classic, deb-based version (default) and, for the first time, an immutable, snap-based build for developers to toy with.
You can’t see me right now but I assure you I’m pulling the best faux-shocked face I can muster.
Why the snark? Well, let’s face it: an all-snap Ubuntu desktop was something of an inevitability. If I’m surprised by anything it’s not that it’s happening next April, but that it has taken this long to happen at all!
The new snap-based desktop build won’t be the default, i.e. the version most people will choose to use. Even so, it’s arrival is a huge step forward.
Ubuntu Core launched in 2015 as a snap-based, immutable version of Ubuntu tailored to IoT, embedded devices, and other (non-desktop) purposes. It’s been fairly successful and is out there being uses in digital signage, robots, drones, and (likely) a million other edge cases I’ve never heard about.
But Ubuntu Core was never a desktop product. You can install Core on a Raspberry Pi 4 (among other devices) and (try to) install a desktop on top of it, but it’s not explicitly geared for that purpose.
Immutable desktop distros are the trend du jour right now, with the likes of Fedora Silverblue and EndlessOS blazing a trail. Whether they hit the critical mass is by-the-by; they’re where the cutting edge of development is happening.
And Ubuntu has to get involved.
Now, with CUPS (i.e. the Linux printing stack) getting snap’d in Ubuntu 23.10, and most of Ubuntu’s other vital desktop components either snap’d up or snap-compatible (yes, even graphics drivers) it seems the stars — or at least the packages — have aligned to make it a reality.
You don’t have to venture far in the Linux community to find criticism of snap — not all of it unearned, granted. But could the emergence of all-Snap desktop provide the packaging format with an opportunity to showcase what it can do?
