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I don't use snap, and I am going to do a fresh installation of Ubuntu 22.04.

So can I remove snap without having any issues? Do I have to follow different steps in order to do that, or is the removal procedure the same as in previous versions?

BeastOfCaerbannog
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adumbProgrammer
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  • hi @asmit If you don't like to use snap, surely you can remove it. This thread will help you uninstall snap properly: https://askubuntu.com/users/1452197/asmit – Jags Apr 22 '22 at 02:33
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    FYI, removing purging snapd using apt works just fine. Yet, I haven't been able to prevent it from being reinstalled with your typical, "Package: snapd Pin: release * Pin-Priority: -1" Ubuntu just ignores it. (How convenient! Did they f**k with apt to achieve that?!) The same recipe works just fine for any other package. This drives me nuts; am I dumb or am I dumb? I'll start another thread about it... – Iiro Ullin Apr 26 '22 at 22:24

1 Answers1

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Q. So can I remove snap without having any issues?

⇢ This depends on whether you can find replacement packages for some of the things that run as Snaps. On a stock 22.04 installation, snap list will show the following:

Name               Version                     Rev    Tracking         Publisher         Notes
bare               1.0                         5      latest/stable    canonical✓        base
core18             20220309                    2344   latest/stable    canonical✓        base
core20             20220318                    1405   latest/stable    canonical✓        base
firefox            99.0.1-1                    1232   latest/stable/…  mozilla✓          -
gnome-3-28-1804    3.28.0-19-g98f9e67.98f9e67  161    latest/stable    canonical✓        -
gnome-3-38-2004    0+git.1f9014a               99     latest/stable/…  canonical✓        -
gtk-common-themes  0.1-79-ga83e90c             1534   latest/stable/…  canonical✓        -
snap-store         41.3-59-gf884f48            575    latest/stable/…  canonical✓        -
snapd              2.55.3                      15534  latest/stable    canonical✓        snapd

If none of these are needed, then you should have no issues after removing Snap from your system.

Aside: In the event you would like to replace Snap with Flatpak, this script from Alan Pope may be of interest to you.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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matigo
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    Here Alan Pope (now out of Canonical, and creator of unsnap) tried to explain the reasons behind gnome/gtk being delivered as snap pkgs. Certainly snap-store could be removed (to use GNOME Software instead), and firefox is available as a flatpak – Pablo Bianchi Apr 22 '22 at 03:05
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    @PabloBianchi firefox is available as a deb. I can't believe this has to be noted. – Braiam Apr 22 '22 at 11:31
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    Exactly. There is never a good reason to use snap. All snap does is enable lazy shared library design - you don't have to worry about dependency hell due to bad design if every app literally has it's own copy of every single "shared" library. Snap should be avoided if at all possible, and its use discouraged. – nyet May 21 '22 at 02:17
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    I wonder if Mark Shuttleworth realizes the part he is playing in killing off Firefox. Someone should really explain it to him. – Dagelf Oct 06 '22 at 10:49
  • This list looks like just the snap daemon, the snap store, and firefox, and their dependencies. Those scary looking "gnome-3-28-????" snaps are just there to support the gnome based snap apps, probably just "snap-store".

    So basically if you wanted to remove snap all you'd need is to replace firefox.

     – thomasrutter Apr 24 '23 at 08:17