SNAP, a door to non free software!
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Hi all.
Recently I installed snapd on my T7 machine. I was just curious.
I could install LibreOffice 6 without a hassle, and that was fine...
But, then I started looking at snapd docs and words like "store" instead of "repository" began to lit my screen... and I thought that it could be a very easy way to install non free software in Trisquel.
I made the try with a well known porprietary program (won't name it) executing
$ snap search <name-of-propietary-software>
...and there it was, ready to be installed in my system. With the hope to see that it was unavailable i tried to have more info about it:
$ snap info <name-of-propietary-software>
This showed me the version to be installed, and a short description, but nothing to tell me that it was not able to be installed.
I didn't try to install it, so I don't know if it installs at the end, nor if it works, but everything makes me think that it does.
So, if snapd is pointing to a "store" that can't be changed (for what I know), full of propietary software, I'm afraid that it violates the "fully free OS" principles, and it should be removed from repos.
Jaume.
Obviously, if snap is available in Trisquel 8, then it'll point to a place managed by the Trisquel project and subject to all of the same policy criteria: https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
Are these apps alternatives for Skype and Spotify?
--Spreed
--Tizonia
##EDIT##
I tried installing Spotify, and it installs the snap. So it's not redirected to another free program. I only thought about this because cdda2wav redirects to icedax.
I know you are into Trisquel 8 final steps, and I am glad to see that you have this problem in mind, but Trisquel 7 has this problem.
I would try to correct it if I had the skills and/or the time (I have none, I'm afraid).
Meantime, I filed a bug (did not keep the number, sorry).
Thanks for reporting the bug. It's # 23918 right here: https://trisquel.info/en/issues/23918
You should also send an email about it to report-nonfree @ fsf.org and get a GNU Buck for your efforts signed by RMS. More information about GNU Bucks are at https://www.gnu.org/help/gnu-bucks.en.html
Snap was the bane of my existence on Ubuntu 16.04. I couldn't figure out a way to disable it, and Software includes Snap packages (without an option to turn them off), so any time I tried to find a program that way I'd be inundated with proprietary Snap packages.
But Trisquel 8 won't have that problem. :)
I now have Spotify. All it takes 'snap install spotify'. Trisquel 8.
'snap remove spotify' -- it's gone.
> I now have Spotify. All it takes 'snap install spotify'. Trisquel 8.
If your copy of SNAP really came from Trisquel 8, and you manage to
install Spotify by doing `snap install spotify' without needing to add
any other repository/store/whatever, then this installation of Spotify
*is* a bug. The bug is not the existance of SNAP.
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- Arquivos comuns aceitos (apenas sem DRM): Corel Draw, Microsoft
Office, MP3, MP4, WMA, WMV.
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(apenas sem DRM), PNG, TXT, WEBM.
One only needs to install snapd, which is in the repos, and then install the snap. That’s it. Installing anything proprietary has never been easier than this. There’s Skype a few commands away. Not quite like what one would expect from a free libre distro, such as Trisquel. Sadly, the OP is dead right. It’s an issue.
And yes, it’s T8. I swear, untinkered.
I am a member!
name at domain wrote ..
> I now have Spotify. All it takes 'snap install spotify'. Trisquel 8.
Wut. Screenshot?
It works (see screenshot). Spotify and other proprietary software are also recommended in Gnome Software Center (see other screenshot). I reported the latter as a licensing issue
https://trisquel.info/en/issues/23466
months ago, but had not actually attempted installing any proprietary to see if it would work. Apparently it does.
Even after running
$ snap remove spotify
Gnome Software still says it's installed. When I try to remove it within Gnome Software I get
"Detailed errors from the package manager follow: snapd returned status code 400: Bad Request"
Gnome Software is pretty buggy to begin with, so hopefully Spotify is indeed no longer installed. I may reinstall Trisquel to be safe though.
Perhaps snapd should be temporarily removed until this is issue fixed.
I am a translator!
How is this any different to pip or easy_install?
> How is this any different to pip or easy_install?
As far as I know, it's not different from these, because all of those
three have external default repositories. Perhaps we have to seek help
from other free/libre system distribution projects since these patches
might be useful to all these projects.
The issue is also seen with npm. Note that I don't know if Trisquel's pip,
easy_install or npm have these issues, I only mentioned that they have
these issues by default because I already experienced this in other
distros a long time ago.
There was a discussion of that on the gnu-linux-libre mailing list. The thread was "programming language package manager" if anyone wants to read it.
TL;DR: It's not any different and, to the extent that language-specific package managers contain non-free software, this same issue is raised and should be addressed. As you can see from the mailing list Guix is on it.
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