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From: RonB <ronb02NOSPAM@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Shocking speed difference, Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint, Snap vs.
 Flatpak
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 05:34:45 -0000 (UTC)
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On 2025-03-19, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:
> On 2025-03-19 00:58, RonB wrote:
>> On 2025-03-18, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:
>>> Having discovered that Ubuntu intends to replace the GNU utilities with
>>> Rust equivalents which may or may not work as well in the coming months,
>>> I switched over to Linux Mint 22.1 from Ubuntu 24.04 on this old Macbook
>>> Air 2017. Not only does it bundle the necessary, proprietary wireless
>>> drivers allowing for a smooth install unlike Ubuntu, but Linux Mint runs
>>> a _lot_ faster under Cinnamon than Ubuntu's implementation of GNOME. I
>>> imagine that most of it is due to the use of Snap. For example,
>>> LibreOffice went from taking about ten seconds to load (on a cold start)
>>> to one or two.
>>>
>>> I can only hope that Linux Mint does not follow Ubuntu in removing the
>>> GNU utilities in favour of the rewritten Rust ones. They have already
>>> shown themselves to be less than 100% compatible, so you can imagine
>>> what kind of chaos will result from the change.
>> 
>> I'm finding out that the Firefox Snap can't read files in the non-local user
>> directory and Flatpaks can't work with applications outside of their
>> directory. I also can't (or don't know how) to customize the Snap version of
>> Firefox. I think AppImage is the best of the three.
>
> While AppImage does a stellar job, the reality is that it doesn't have 
> the security features of Flatpak or Snap. If I had to choose between the 
> three, Flatpak looks like it is far and beyond the best compromise.

Okay, I don't know enough about it to contradict you. It's probably Snap and 
Flatpaks security features that get in the way of applications working 
properly. So another reason not to like Snap. I'll reserve judgment on 
Flatpak because I found a workaround for Trelby's PDF issue and, I'm 
guessing, the person who made the Trelby Flatpak probably left something 
out.

At any rate I "found" (someone told me at the GitHub site) that you can give 
Trelby access to the /tmp directory and it will allow you to use the default 
PDF application. So it's a workaround, but it works.

Just type (or copy and paste) into the terminal...

flatpak override --user --filesystem=/tmp org.trelby.Trelby

I still don't know how to customize a Snap version of Firefox, however. And 
I still don't like that Snaps appear as "partitions" when you run a df 
command. I've removed all Snaps from my computers. 

>> There might be another reason Linux Mint is faster. LM defaults to X11
>> instead of Wayland. On my (older) machines Wayland leaves artifacts (is
>> blotchy in the dark parts of videos, which I guess are artifacts). X11
>> doesn't do this.
>> 
>> Change isn't always for the better.
>
> Ubuntu 24.04 still uses X11. It seems to default to Wayland after that 
> release. The slow performance really does seem to be the result of Snap 
> since even the interface itself shouldn't be slower as it is also based 
> on GTK3 like Cinnamon.

I'm pretty sure Ubuntu 24.04 defaults to Wayland. But I may be wrong about 
that. I think I had to disable Wayland the last time I tried a desktop 
version of Ubuntu.

-- 
“Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy 
what has been invented or made by the forces of good.”  —J.R.R. Tolkien