A little less than a month ago we publish news echoing a Canonical report in which they told us that the Snaps were already installed more than 3 million times a month. In that report they also told us that they were available or compatible with 42 flavors of Linux and growing. But today I decided to enter the Snappy Store and I have seen something that has caught my attention: the number that appears now is not 42, but 41. What happened?
The simple answer is that we don't know. It is very positive when it comes to marketing to say that there are many distributions compatible with Snaps, but it is no longer so good to say that that number has dropped. By this I mean that, at least up to now and as far as I know, there has been no official statement from anyone related to Canonical, but there has been one by one of the operating systems that could be included in the "famous" 42.
Is it elementary OS the one that has fallen from number 42 of the OS compatible with Snaps? It seems not
To know all the answers we would have to ask Canonical what is necessary, according to them, to be included in that figure. And this is where the key to a question that I do not know may lie. Information on how to install appears in the same Snappy Store snapD on elementary OS, as well as on many other operating systems. My doubts are:
- Those 42 are the systems you can install snapD or those that have it installed by default? Ubuntu supports Snap packages by default since Ubuntu 16.04. Since April 2016, many operating systems have been made compatible with Snap packages, but by default? UPDATED: the systems that have it are those that can install it with official information or have it by default.
- Has the number dropped because elementary OS announced what's going to happen to the Flatpak? Although at this time there is still information that it can be installed in elementary OS, we cannot rule out the possibility that Canonical has lowered the number to 41 as a small slap on the wrist to the operating system that made the Pantheon graphical environment famous for what they could consider it as a betrayal. Do not forget that elementary OS is a distribution based on Ubuntu. UPDATED: it is not elementary OS.
- If not for elementary OS, who and why has been dropped from the list?
Sorry but I still don't have the answers. All I know is that it's no longer 42, but 41, and this is a slight slowdown in the adoption of Snaps. I can also say that we will have to be patient because I'm sure that in several years everything will be much better. What do you think about Snaps being now "compatible" with one less operating system than a month ago?
UPDATED: I am told that elementary OS is still "supported", which means that there is documentation on how to install it. Therefore, it is not known which one has been dropped from the list.