Mozilla introduced this in a weblog submit. On windows and Mac, you get Firefox from Mozilla andmaintain receiving updates from Mozilla. On Linux, matters are extraordinary. Your Linux distribution ships with a single model of Firefox (along side different software programs) and you often continue to becaught with that model till a new version of the Linux distribution is launched.
This isn’t technically the manner matters paintings for Firefox on Ubuntu nowadays, because the modernversions of Firefox are furnished by Ubuntu as a security update. however they’re supplied by means ofUbuntu, not Mozilla—Ubuntu’s builders have to assemble Firefox’s supply code for Ubuntu and check theensuing software program, making sure it doesn’t smash another applications that depend uponFirefox.
Snaps help resolve this trouble. Snaps are self-contained, like containers, and include the whole lot apackage deal needs to run. They don’t tamper with the relaxation of your system, so nothing will destroyas it depends on an vintage version of the software you put in. Snaps are also sandboxed, so there’s alarge security advantage—it’ll help save you flaws in Firefox from being exploited to assault the relaxationof your machine.
Mozilla is ready to cut out the intermediary and supply Firefox to Ubuntu users itself. “Later this 12 months, we can offer Firefox in Snap layout, making it less complicated to push the browser directly tousers in place of counting on an middleman to just accept updates before they attain users,” reads Mozilla’s assertion. this indicates faster updates and a browser coming immediately from Mozilla itself, as on windows and Mac—not one that needs to be compiled, tweaked, and examined by way of Ubuntu’sdevelopers.
If greater software program developers pursue this course, it’ll be a massive trade for the mannersoftware is introduced on Linux. Linux distributions will offer a base machine, with developers handing over their software at once to customers. That’s Canonical’s purpose.
Mozilla’s is likewise crowing approximately the reality that Firefox has been the default browser in Ubuntu for over a decade. This wasn’t a completed deal—Ubuntu’s developers had been once “leaning towards”replacing Firefox with Chromium, the open-source model of Google Chrome. Firefox hung on, and now it’sready to guide the manner forward.
