snapd

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 17 June 2016 at 18:32, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
> On Jun 17, 2016, at 11:24 AM, Alexey Kuznetsov wrote:
>
>> Universal “snap” packages launch on multiple Linux distros
>>
>> https://insights.ubuntu.com/2016/06/14/universal-snap-packages-launch-on-multiple-linux-distros/
>>
>> Even OpenWRT on the list. Why not join?
>
> Do I understand correctly that you are suggesting that MacPorts should change its binary package format from what it currently uses to this "snap" package format? If so, what would be the advantage to MacPorts to doing so?

Maybe I misunderstand the concept (I only spent a few minutes reading
the page) and I'm actually amazed that they finally came up with this,
something that's compatible across different linux distribution (which
is something that's been "killing" linux for a long time). This looks
as if Linux finally has some good chances to actually get quality
software (including commercial packages) delivered to all distros.

But from what I understand, snapd doesn't *replace* the main package
manager anywhere, but rather *complements it*. This looks like a
package manager on its own, more like an "App Store" from where one
can download various software that neither depends nor conflicts with
anything installed by MacPorts, and one can easily live with software
X installed by both MacPorts and App Store.

To greatly simplify it, it's like doing

    sudo port install py35-pip
    pip-3.5 install <some-python-package>

or

    sudo port install perl5.24
    cpan install ...

and get access to numerous python/perl/whatever packages that only had
to be prepared once and work everywhere, on each platform, on each OS,
... (except that snap seems to provide binaries rather than sources).