Canonical’s developer and OpenPrinting’s project leader Till Kamppeter said in May this year, plans to use the Snap version of the CUPS print stack by default on Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur).
After months of testing, however, the decision has been officially dropped, and the Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS distributions will still use the DEB-based print stack by default.
The team has delayed the effective date and plans to switch to the snap version CUPS print stack by default in the Ubuntu 24.10 release.
Ubuntu 23.10 developer version has already added snap version CUPS print stack and just in the process of testing found a lot of problems
A brief list of the following:
- The snap version of the CUPS print stack is not yet ready to be embedded in the desktop distribution.
- The snap version of the CUPS print stack does not work properly in some flavours.
- GNOME Control Center needs to adapt its UI to the snap version of the CUPS print stack.
- D-Bus sessions need improved support
Snap is a new generation of Linux package management tools from Canoncial that aims to standardize the package format across all Linux distributions so that it can be used “once packaged, always used”.
Snap is now available on several Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, etc. Snap applications are sandboxed, and the system implements security features by restricting access to resources.
Snap has the following advantages over the traditional deb format:
- Dependency management: Snap packages have all the runtime and dependency libraries built-in, so they can run on any version of the Ubuntu distribution without having to worry about dependencies.
- Version Control: The Snap format allows developers to package different versions of software into different Snap packages, which allows users to install different versions of software at the same time without interfering with each other. This is also very useful for developers as they can test different versions of software in different Snap packages.
- Security: The Snap format provides a sandboxing mechanism that increases the security of the system by limiting the access rights of the software to the system. This mechanism makes it safer for users to install and use software without having to worry about the software jeopardizing the security of the system.
- Easy Maintenance: The Snap format allows developers to automatically update software to the latest version, which makes it easier for users to keep their software current.
