We have been previously outspoken about the issues of Snap, in articles on different platforms. When Linux Mint originally removed Snapd, my original reaction was “Linux Mint was removing user choice!” when in fact, when looking at the evidence, the issue was in Ubuntu. Ubuntu removes user choice by breaking the promises it made about Snap, and we now are taking a stand and dealing with the issue.
We developed OptinSnap, a tool for enabling/disabling/removing Snap from an Ubuntu system at will. It is a single-file application under the MIT license that was written in bash. The usage is simple. Run the script as root, with the options to enable/disable/remove which can be done in many ways.
This script is under the MIT License, so feel free to put the script in any distribution or package on any system. We will be disabling Snap by default on Ubuntu Lumina Remix 20.10, but we want to add extra usability and functionality to the users of our system. We hate having to vendor lock, but this tool was built as a “sorry, our foot is down, but here is how to change it!” We know this is not going to sit well with everyone, but the decision was made because we do not want to remove choice by forcing Snap, but not also forcing a tutorial to run 3 lines of code, and if you change your mind on re-adding Snap to run through a dangerous and slightly difficult process.
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