After creating a fresh installation of Ubuntu 24.04, I installed DEB Firefox from APT by following Mozilla’s instructions from here. But I noticed that it was secretly replaced with Snap Firefox. I was able to verify this by checking the About Firefox page. This is the third time I noticed this.

  • Mwa@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    They have been doing this for a while.

    Would recommend you to stick to MX,Mint or if you care only about stability and not Updates debian.

    • Noble Bacon@lemmy.mlPortuguês
      0·
      1 month ago

      You could have gone pure Debian. There are no snap shenanigans over there :)

      OpenSuse is also a great pick tho!

    • sourov@lemm.eeOP
      0·
      1 month ago

      Since when this became a known thing? I’m aware that the snap version is installed when the user is trying to install the deb version of Firefox by running,

      sudo apt install firefox

      But I never heard that the installed DEB version of Firefox is replaced by Snap version of Firefox.

      • Routhinator@startrek.websiteEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        The deb version is a pointer to the snap in their repos. Nothings being replaced, it no longer exists. The deb version of Firefox in Ubuntu repos is a wrapper that installs snap and has no binaries in it. Has been for 3 years or so.

        • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
          0·
          1 month ago

          It’s more than that. Ubuntu copies the Debian repos and then applies their own changes on top. Debian has a native (DEB) Firefox package, so Ubuntu specifically has to remove it for every new version.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 month ago

        Well then you haven’t been following it closely. As someone else said, the reason is simple: the Snap version is more recent (like it or not) and in Ubuntu apt is configured to take into account Snap packages.

        • Morphit @feddit.uk
          0·
          1 month ago

          Canonical added an epoch prefix to the firefox version number. Because that epoch (1) is higher than the implicit default (0), the official ubuntu dummy package is always considered to be a higher version than the official Mozilla package. apt doesn’t look at snap packages, it installs the deb, but the ubuntu deb just runs snap install firefox and basically nothing else.

    • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      But it’s not obvious either. When I say ‘apt install firefox’, specially after adding their repository to sources.list, I’d expect to get a .deb from mozilla. Silently overriding my commands rubs me in a very wrong way.

      • BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        It takes a little more than just adding a different repository to your package manager, you have to tell apt which to prefer:

        echo ’
        Package: *
        Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
        Pin-Priority: 1000

        Package: firefox*
        Pin: release o=Ubuntu
        Pin-Priority: -1’ | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla

        • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          1 month ago

          True, but more often than not mozilla should have newer packages on their repository than any distribution. And the main problem still is that Ubuntu changed apt and threw snap in to the mix where it doesn’t belong.

          • BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            1 month ago

            I’m not disagreeing with anything you’ve said?

            I’m saying that just adding Mozilla’s PPA to your sources won’t change apt’s behavior when installing Firefox unless you tell apt to prefer the package offered by the Mozilla PPA.

            As someone who uses Kubuntu as a daily driver, I’m well aware of the snap drama and have worked around it using the method I pasted above.

            Even though it’s an underhanded move by Cannonical, I’m still glad the OS is open source since it makes the workaround so trivial.

    • sourov@lemm.eeOP
      0·
      1 month ago

      I’m aware that when the user runs(without adding Mozilla’s apt repository),

      sudo apt install firefox

      the snap version of Firefox is installed. But I never heard that, though APT is configured to install Firefox from Mozilla’s repository, the DEB version will be uninstalled and the Snap version will be installed.

      • caseyweederman@lemmy.ca
        0·
        1 month ago

        Firefox now has instructions on their “Debian-based” install section about pinning their repo over Canonical’s so that doesn’t happen.

        Because you’re right, Canonical does think so highly of their product that they will constantly attempt to undermine other options against your will.

      • Eugenia@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        Yes, this is known. They do the same for Chromium. If you want a browser from ubuntu, it’s going to be a snap.

        • Morphit @feddit.uk
          0·
          1 month ago

          w3m is a proper deb 😛

          Looks like only firefox, chromium-browser and thunderbird are these dummy transitional packages. There’s a fwupd-snap, but the default fwupd is a full deb.

    • typhoon@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      No defending Ubuntu but wasn’t this clarified to be Mozilla’s deploying it via Snap and requesting to remove the apt installation?

  • Lemmchen@feddit.org
    0·
    1 month ago

    Have you correctly set your apt preferences? I didn’t have any issues anymore since I’ve done that.

    • sourov@lemm.eeOP
      0·
      1 month ago

      My problem is not like that. I’m aware that when the user runs(without adding Mozilla’s apt repository),

      sudo apt install firefox

      the snap version of Firefox is installed. But I never heard that, though APT is configured to install Firefox from Mozilla’s repository, the DEB version will be uninstalled and the Snap version will be installed.

      • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
        0·
        1 month ago

        Yes, that’s the exact issue. Ubuntu does that for years. You use apt to install deb, but Ubuntu installs silently the Snap version. The article I linked was talking about that almost 4 years ago and talks about how to stop that. It’s an old issue not many are aware off.

  • phar@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 month ago

    At this point, why is anyone using Ubuntu for desktop? You have soooo many options

    • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      Because not everyone wants to spend their time babysitting an OS and Ubuntu has a 20-year track record of dependability.

      • Aphelion@lemm.ee
        0·
        1 month ago

        I’m a relative Linux noob and Manjaro Arch works perfectly for me, no babysitting required.

        • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 month ago

          I was waiting for this! Debian is great. I used it for years. But IMO it’s not polished enough for normies. The website is fugly and the onboarding funnel assumes too much knowledge. The installer, last time I tried it, was glitchy and unintuitive. I think that techies underestimate how offputting even ostensibly minor issues like this will be to ordinary users. Also, Debian has a ton of unmaintained packages (altho I gather that something is being done about this). Debian is fundamentally amateur in the best and unfortunately worst senses. I think a Linux flagship distro needs to be more pro and systematically thought out. For that, it’s always going to help to have a big company or organization behind it.

          • ritchie@lemmy.world
            0·
            1 month ago

            I have a laptop that needs a proprietary wifi driver. I just “love” it when the debian net installer works out of the box, but after first boot wifi dies because the driver is missing in the installed instance :D I need to find a lan cable, do some athletics to get to the router, then install the driver and only then I can connect via wifi :D

      • pebbles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        I agree Ubuntu is the easy choice. You can totally find a desktop you don’t have to baby sit, but Ubuntu has the marketing to help you find them and feel safe.

        I’ve had no issues with fedora, I’ve been running it for about a year.

        • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
          0·
          1 month ago

          Exactly. But I would go further. I think Linux needs flagship distros with big solid institutions behind them, and it needs us to support those distros by using them. I know this is not an popular opinion here.

          I see those flagship distros precisely as Fedora and Ubuntu.

          • pebbles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            1 month ago

            I’m a bit of an anarchist so I disagree on principal lol, but I do agree that that would help Linux usurp windows.

            My fear is that it would just then become windows within a decade or less. Getting big and institutional may work out. I’ve just seen a lot of cases go sour.

            To me the beauty of Linux is that it is less connected to large impersonal capitalistic structures. That’s why it feels different from Windows.

        • Petter1@lemm.ee
          0·
          1 month ago

          I think fedora is best for user that want a recent kernel and reasonably fast update cycle (like not a year behind) but are not interested in rolling (for whatever reason ever).

          I love rolling and had no issues due to rolling yet

    • gpopides@lemmy.world
      0·
      1 month ago

      Unfortunately it’s my only option at work because my employer wants the security of Ubuntu pro

  • accideath@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    Wasn’t that one of the main critiques of snap/ubuntu/canonical a few years ago already?

    Among my personal dislike for its shade of purple, that has been my primary reason to not recommend ubuntu for a while, at least.

    • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 month ago

      It’s a dilemma; most Windows and Mac users would benefit from that kind of locked-down, idiot-proof format. Even having the choice of multiple repos is too much for them. So while I personally hate it, that’s what most people (i.e. non-Linux users) want and need.

      I recommend Ubuntu as the beginner distro for everyone, but with the hope that they eventually drop the training wheels and switch to Debian.

      • accideath@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 month ago

        That’s why I recommend mint. You have all the benefits of ubuntu but without the corporate stuff. And flatpak instead of snap.

  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 month ago

    Ubuntu uses Snap as first-class method to install software. So if a piece of software is available as DEB or Snap, Ubuntu will always use Snap.

  • notabot@lemm.ee
    0·
    1 month ago

    I suspect that what’s happened is you installed the apt version, then at some point upgraded it and there was a version in the main repo that had a higher version number and installed the snap version. If two repositories both have a package with the same name, and no other rules in place, the higher version number wins.

    If that is the case, you need to pin the firefox package to the mozilla repository. You can find more details here: https://wiki.debian.org/AptConfiguration

  • Yozul@beehaw.org
    0·
    1 month ago

    The whole apt ecosystem is kind of a mess, if you ask me. Debian stable updates on archeological timescales, Debian testing just isn’t a very good rolling release disto, you’re better off with Arch or OpenSuse Tumbleweed if you want to actually use a rolling release as a daily driver, Ubuntu is a mess of annoying corporate decisions I hate from Canonical, and all the others are all just kind of disjointed in how they try to fix those issues.

    My personal favorite is Mint. They just try to make Ubuntu with some classic, boring desktop design and minus the more controversial Canonical decisions, but obviously that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I dunno, there is no perfect distro, you just have to find the one that for you it takes the least amount of effort to fix. Ubuntu really just kind of makes it a pain in the butt to fix all their weirdness though.