Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Debuts with Snaps in Focus

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Lands with Snaps Under Suspicion

Is it worth downloading Ubuntu 20.04 LTS right out of the oven? Those who have already tried it recommend a "yes, but wait a month." The new long-term support version arrived in the middle of quarantine with a tempting promise: no need to format, just a USB drive to boot it up and see what it's made of. The correct ISO for a 64-bit machine should have amd64 in its name, a detail many ask about before diving in.

You don't have to buy anything. It's free software, installs itself, and according to several veteran users, it revives machines that Windows condemned to the scrap heap. But the devil is in the details.

The Clash Over Snap Packages

Here's where the trouble starts. Ubuntu bet on Snaps as a universal packaging format, and a good part of the community hasn't forgiven it. The Snap-based app store is lacking: programs are missing, and many end up installing via apt or Synaptic, the classic way.

A circulating calculation summarizes the criticism: a Snap-based system repeatedly installs the same libraries because it breaks the concept of dependency reuse. This leads to talk of anti-packaging. And watch out for space: an Ubuntu installation with several test desktops is around 19 GB, a figure that increases if you overuse Snaps.

Linux Mint 20.1, The Alternative That Rejects Snap

If you're not convinced by Ubuntu, there's a replacement. Linux Mint 20.1 LTS, codenamed Ulyssa, arrived in beta version with support until 2025 and a move some applaud: Mint has rejected Snaps and packaged Chromium itself to bypass the problem. One participant celebrated it as a move worthy of a standing ovation for its creator, Clement Lefevre.

The downside of Mint, according to some, is that it's a tweaked Ubuntu, and tweaks sometimes cause issues. For those coming from Windows, however, it's usually the easy path: an update manager that prevents messing with kernels haphazardly and a familiar desktop.

Is Linux Really Immune to Bicho?

No. The old mantra that Linux doesn't have bicho might have been true in 2005, but not now, argued one participant. The internet is full of bots looking for vulnerable servers, he added, so having an bicho on a Linux partition is not a foolish idea, and anyone who argues otherwise is spreading a myth that doesn't help anyone.

The real advantage isn't immunity, but that the code is open and holes are patched quickly. Hardware is another matter: if your graphics card or WiFi chip manufacturer abandons support, proprietary drivers can become a puzzle. Some have everything working on a cheap TV Box, while others struggle with unsupported Broadcom hardware.

Reviving an Old Laptop with Linux

Requirements matter. A Budgie-type desktop recommends at least 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk space to run, and asks for 4 GB and 80 GB to run comfortably. On an Atom N270 with an 11-inch laptop, you have to downgrade to LXDE, Xfce, or Mate. Anything more, and it's a tragedy.

Most of the burden isn't the system itself. It's the browser and web apps: WhatsApp, Telegram, or Instagram open consume resources like there's no tomorrow. A machine that only browses is still dying, because today's web is designed to track us with advertising, not to be efficient.

Gaming Without Windows is Now Possible

Steam, Lutris, RetroArch, and emulators for Wii, PS2, or 3DS work with a simple apt-get. For photo editing, there's Photogimp; for illustration, Krita or Inkscape; for video editing, Shotcut. The argument that Linux is only for tinkering loses ground year by year.

What doesn't change is the internal war between distributions. There are too many versions and not enough applications, summarized a widely cited analysis. And while some defend AppImage as the only viable path, others remain tied to Debian or Mint.

In the end, Ubuntu 20.04 does what it always does well: it's robust and has a huge community behind it. The rest is arguing about the brand of the wrapper.