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Canonical are well into development on Ubuntu 24.10, the next non-LTS version of the popular Linux distribution and things keep improving for gamers.

In their latest developer update, Oliver Smith the Interim Engineering Director for Ubuntu Desktop, goes over some details that were already made in Ubuntu 24.04 like some of the fine-tuning they did to the Linux kernel that improved gaming performance.

As for what's to come, plenty of changes are planned for the Steam Snap package. This actually appeared for the first time in the recent Steam Survey for May, which shows up as "Ubuntu Core 22". Smith noted how the Steam Snap will soon get updates "with a broader range of permissions that should resolve a number of outstanding reports" that will "enable Steam to have access to the things it expects whilst still maintaining the dependency management and updated userspace driver benefits".

More changes are coming like GNOME 46.2 for Ubuntu 24.04 and there's improvements to the new Ubuntu Desktop installer. Their App Center is getting various improvements like running Snaps no longer blocking "users from using the ‘update all’ option in the management interface", supporting externally downloaded .deb files and the gaming tab will soon sort applications by their average rating by default.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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dpanter Jun 17
Thanos, please save us!
morbius Jun 17
I tried Steam snap when I installed Ubuntu 24.04 and it worked like ass, no games would start. I replaced it with the app from Steam store and everything was fine.
grigi Jun 17
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It's a laudable effort from Canonical to try and harden the linux desktop by using sandboxing as standard.
Just, why do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

True, Snap supports more use cases than either Flatpak or oci, but its such a closed ecosystem that nobody else dares adopt it. So it just develops at a slower pace, and gets less testing. And sits with horrible performance for years, etc...

It's basically the reason I tell people to move off Ubuntu as their snapification of everything is really breaking things.

Frustrating that Ubuntu (Means: Working together well) is not working together.
hardpenguin Jun 17
Press X to doubt
Tuxee Jun 17
Quoting: morbiusI tried Steam snap when I installed Ubuntu 24.04 and it worked like ass, no games would start. I replaced it with the app from Steam store and everything was fine.

What is the "app from Steam store"? Downloading Steam from Steam? This might cause a singularity in the space-time continuum...

Anyway: The Snap version of Steam runs without hiccups on my laptop. The apt version had it's fair share of problems with launching the single game I play on my laptop (Hexcells).

The apt version of Steam on my desktop launches all games quite nicely BUT I always have to start Steam from a shell. Just clicking the icon which supposedly does exactly the same results (after showing the splash screen briefly) in a Steam icon in my indicators section but does nothing else. The only menu entry working is "Exit Steam".
Tuxee Jun 17
Quoting: grigiwhy do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

You are aware that most of the NIH stuff came before nowadays established alternatives?

upstart (2006) preceded systemd (2010).
Unity (2010) preceded Gnome Shell (2011).
Snap (2014) preceded Flatpak (2015).
And when Mir was announced in 2013 Wayland was a long shot from being remotely usable.
Even Bazaar (26 March 2005) came a few days before Git (7 April 2005 after a 3 day development).
Quotesupporting externally downloaded .deb files
It still baffles me that a supposedly user-friendly distribution required you to use apt in the terminal to install .deb files until now.

Quoting: grigiJust, why do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

True, Snap supports more use cases than either Flatpak or oci, but its such a closed ecosystem that nobody else dares adopt it.
Canonical started developing Snap before Flatpak existed.
Quoting: TuxeeAnd when Mir was announced in 2013 Wayland was a long shot from being remotely usable.
Though notably Intel "[did] not condone or support Canonical in the course of action they have chosen":

[1]: https://www.phoronix.com/news/MTQ1NjY
[2]: https://lwn.net/Articles/566115/

Canonical always manages to annoy other stakeholders when they come up with their own stuff. Though Upstart was probably cool and generally well-liked, and Ubuntu Touch seemed nice enough.
Quoting: grigiIt's a laudable effort from Canonical to try and harden the linux desktop by using sandboxing as standard.
Just, why do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

True, Snap supports more use cases than either Flatpak or oci, but its such a closed ecosystem that nobody else dares adopt it. So it just develops at a slower pace, and gets less testing. And sits with horrible performance for years, etc...

It's basically the reason I tell people to move off Ubuntu as their snapification of everything is really breaking things.

Frustrating that Ubuntu (Means: Working together well) is not working together.

What do your suggest for the people you tell to move off ubuntu?

I'm on ubuntu atm and mostly stuck with ubuntu to keep things as simple as possible for me, I was enjoying linux mint prior to that but don't like how further behind mint is with things like wayland ect
slaapliedje Jun 17
Quoting: Tuxee
Quoting: grigiwhy do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

You are aware that most of the NIH stuff came before nowadays established alternatives?

upstart (2006) preceded systemd (2010).
Unity (2010) preceded Gnome Shell (2011).
Snap (2014) preceded Flatpak (2015).
And when Mir was announced in 2013 Wayland was a long shot from being remotely usable.
Even Bazaar (26 March 2005) came a few days before Git (7 April 2005 after a 3 day development).
Quoting: Doktor-Mandrake
Quoting: grigiIt's a laudable effort from Canonical to try and harden the linux desktop by using sandboxing as standard.
Just, why do they always have to do the Not-Invented-Here thing all the time.

True, Snap supports more use cases than either Flatpak or oci, but its such a closed ecosystem that nobody else dares adopt it. So it just develops at a slower pace, and gets less testing. And sits with horrible performance for years, etc...

It's basically the reason I tell people to move off Ubuntu as their snapification of everything is really breaking things.

Frustrating that Ubuntu (Means: Working together well) is not working together.

What do your suggest for the people you tell to move off ubuntu?

I'm on ubuntu atm and mostly stuck with ubuntu to keep things as simple as possible for me, I was enjoying linux mint prior to that but don't like how further behind mint is with things like wayland ect
I usually just do Debian, but Mint and PopOS are fine. Being behind on Wayland isn't a terrible thing, it's not 100% 'ready' yet. Much in the same way the move from GTK2 to 3 to 4 wasn't ready for a long time because so many apps hadn't been updated yet. Wayland breaks copy/paste behavior in older apps.
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