Linux Haters of Specific Distribution Features

Tagged with linux, snap, systemd, ubuntu on June 14, 2024

As it is in any other part of society, Linux has its own share of haters. As the expression goes, “haters gonna hate”, and there’s nothing you can do about it. While I can’t tell you what all the hate is about, I can tell you about some of it. Some of it is directed at the systemd software suite, and some of it is directed at the snap software packaging and deployment system.

I can’t tell you why some specific distribution features are hated, but I can tell you that some people have completely disabled them in certain distributions. In some instances, these features were never adopted in the first place.

Systemd Software Suite

I’m not enough of a nerd to care about why people dislike systemd. Some people are just a little annoyed by it, while others are vehemently opposed to it.

When Debian decided to adopt systemd, some people decided to create a new version of Debian called Devuan. Other than not having systemd as a component, Devuan is nearly the same as Debian.

There are a lot of distributions that don’t, or won’t, use systemd. Check out this list: Category:Linux distributions without systemd

Snap Software Packaging and Deployment System

I know why people dislike snap, and it’s because they aren’t given the choice of not using it. Snap packages, like flatpak packages, are sandboxed, self-contained software packages. All of their dependencies are included, making those packages larger than standard repository packages.

People didn’t start getting upset about snap until Canonical decided to subvert the APT package tool. When you install a package with APT, you expect the package to come from a standard repository. If you try to install Firefox or Thunderbird with APT on an Ubuntu flavor or derivative, however, the snap version gets installed.

This led the developers of Linux Mint to disable snap by default. Other developers have created scripts to disable snap on Ubuntu and Kubuntu. There may be more, but I only know of two of them: “ubuntu-debullshit!” and “Kubuntu get rid of Snap”

I installed Ubuntu and Kubuntu in two separate VirtualBox virtual machines and ran those scripts. They work as advertised.

Linux is All of It

Detractors say the reason Linux will never become more popular than Windows or macOS is due to all the fragmentation. I consider that a strength, not a weakness. When one distribution becomes more popular than another, there’s always a good reason for it. While some developers are paid to work on Linux distributions, there are way more volunteers, and those volunteers number in the thousands.

Users of Windows and macOS have to wait for their developers to fix something that goes wrong, and it can take weeks. Linux users get things fixed way faster, even if they have to do it themselves.

Image by [email protected] Larry Ewing and The GIMP, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. This article was updated on December 15, 2024.