Ubuntu is mainstream and nearly flawless these days in modern (but not bleeding edge) equipment. Veterans don't mention it because it has snaps, but regular users couldn't care less, they just want something they can use for their daily needs. No need to name niche distros.
Man, have you actually used the snaps? I don't know how a regular user would stand it. If you just have Firefox and Discord installed as snaps, it's a never ending popup annoyance mess. I can't imagine having more Snaps installed than that. You're told at least twice a day to close Firefox, and then you get told again to close Discord because there's an update for that. Then it says "Fuck you" and updates in the background, even though I didn't want it to, causing the currently running version to crash. Never mind that I was in the middle of something. Oh yeah and it's awesome how your dock icon just quits working half the time after an update, and I get to re-pin it. Not to mention, they start up slow as shit. I hate Windows with a passion, but snap makes Windows Update seem like a great system.
Ubuntu user since 2006 IIRC. Snaps are not such a big deal. Sure, they're slow to start, consume more resources, they're annoying with updates, and you gotta backup their private snap directory or they will lose your data. I've used Flatpak, containers, the Windows Store, etc., all have warts too.
Still, a regular user running Ubuntu LTS and regular backups will make snaps a non issue, because all OSes have similar annoyances and users learn to work with, or around, them.
Linux is exceptional in the sense that nearly all distros aim to give users more freedom to use their computers, not to corral them into a walled garden to milk them. It won't meet everyone's use cases, but it doesn't force you to choose: you can always use several OSes. It's not marriage.
> Veterans don't mention it because it has snaps, but regular users couldn't care less, they just want something they can use for their daily needs. No need to name niche distros.
The problem with snaps is they can cause unpredictable issues for a newcomer not expecting it.
It's espeically egregious when they force apt to pull in snaps, as it adds yet another layer of complexity no one asked for.
I started with Mint in Highschool and it served me well as a previous Windows user. It's quite literally Ubuntu, without snaps, and with a Windows-like UI out of the box (Cinnamon).
Not sure if it counts as "no-name" to you or the average beginner, though it's really starting to take the place Ubuntu used to have among beginners.
There isn’t a Linux end-user-oriented distribution/container/sandbox solution I’ve run across that doesn’t come with some set of complications. I’m not convinced that sandboxing being external to the OS itself is a viable solution, there’s just too many things that can go wrong with integration points and the like for it to work well for non-technical users. Feels like macOS got this more right by shipping “dumb” all-inclusive .app packages that the OS then handles things like permissions and sandboxing on.
For my personal usage if there’s a .deb/.rpm/etc option for a program I install that instead of the flatpak or whatever. It almost universally works better.
I agree; I always try to install a program through the distribution's page manager first and foremost—including AUR/GURU methods if available—over flatpak/snap.
I'm more okay with appimages; At least they don't require a framework to be installed on my end. I treat them akin to Windows programs with a "portable .exe" option.
That bleeding edge point burned me many times. My most recent lenovo legion refused to work with any distro I tried. I'm no Linux guru but comfortable with Linux and just couldn't get the gpu to work.
I've been using Ubuntu and Fedora and I LOVE the simple and straightforward Gnome shell I have on both. It's useful out of the box and that's perfect for me. It's very Mac like in its way to promote a sane default rather than endless configurations. I don't want to waste time changing the screen background.
