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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Is it me or Ubuntu secretly replaces DEB Firefox with Snap Firefox? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

103 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 45 minutes ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 minutes 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.