Ubuntu Mate 22.04 and Firefox 98.02

#1

After fighting a long while trying to determine wether Firefox 98.0.2 has a slow startup of about 20 seconds the first time after booting, I have came to the conclussion that either with ubuntu repositories or with mozilla ppa repositories in both cases firefox is installled with snap and in both cases firefox (at least in my 22.04) last very much to load. and I have found a second bug and it is that when trying to backup or restore bookmarks firefox does not interact with caja and you cannot get latest backup or make a new one.

I have completely removed snapd and dependencies based upon some guide found in internet and after using mozilla ppa I installed via apt "firefox-esr" version 91. with is fast and reliable.
I am not yet aware what this version is but I guess it has an extended support release intended for enterprises.

In other words you must first get rid of snap and after that load mozilla ppa reposotiries

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa -y
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox-esr

The fact is that this version works fast.

Hope this information is useful

Regards

4 Likes
#2
1 Like
#3

Thanks for your tutorial. It will be useful. as Cannonical is planning to adopt snap and it seems that it will be the official way in a near future. In my personal opinion I don't like snap because with apt I can remove all residual files from my system when something is removed using "mlocate package" (sudo updatedb and then sudo locate xxx) and once found residual and unused files I can remove them from my system with a terminal. With snap I haven't find the way and flatpak (despite it's better than snap) it is maintained by a free community but still is not working fine because it is not completely integrated with system theme and still they have bugs (both snap and flatpak) like not interacting with caja in UM unabling to open files or to save them in some folders of the system)
Thanks for your cooperation and regards. I''l wait your tutorial

#4

Here is another alternative I have used for years. It gives you the Ubuntuzilla versions of Firefox, Firefox ESR, Thunderbird and Seamonkey. These are by repository, not ppa. The one disadvantage is they take a day or two longer to upgrade.

https://sourceforge.net/p/ubuntuzilla/wiki/Main_Page/#installation

#5

I agree about snaps, and while I love Ubuntu Mate, I have moved one laptop to Mint as a trial. You can add mate-themes and make it look just like your Ubuntu Mate installation if you wish too, that is what I did. I dislike Mint themes.
No snaps unless you want them with Mint. If snaps become the standard for Ubuntu Mate software, I will be gone for good. I truly hope that does not happen.

3 Likes
#6

I have been using UM 22.04 for several weeks now. Last week, and update brought in the snap Firefox. No problem, I thought, I'll just remove it and re-install the deb version. No dice: they made the firefox deb in the repos simply install the snap. I will either use Firefox ESR from the PPA, or the tar.gz from Mozilla.

Jymm, you can add me to the list of people seriously considering moving on from UM if they're going to start moving wholesale to snaps - it is not a technology I am going to put up with.

2 Likes
#7

Jymm I started with Debian while it had Gnome2. After Debian I used Linux Mint firstly with cinnamon and finally with Mate, but I felt that there were no much upgradings so in 2014 I moved to Ubuntu Mate until today. I am confident that bugs like firefox under snap will be solved in the final version. Nevertheless I don't like closed boxex like snap or flatpak and that's might be the reason why I never had an Apple device. I think that if Cannonical moves forward with snap someone will find the way to keep apt alive, or perhaps I'm getting old and I'm reluctant to changes and used to handle my system in my way... Who knows. Particularly if Debian had a 5 years support I would be there.

1 Like
#8

Ubuntu based distributions who wish to ship the Firefox deb may need to build it externally?
What about Chromium deb?

Chromium and Firefox seem to be distributed as deb packages through the Linux Mint repositories.

#9

The other day I noticed that Firefox ESR will appear in Welcome → Browser Selection as well as in the Software Boutique (thanks @franksmcb for adding) -- Ironically, from one of the default snap applications. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
#10

In this case it was Firefox that insisted on making only one version - the Snap. I am sure Canonical did not resist. The use of containerized apps will keep happening more and more as evidenced the rise of Flatpacks being part of many distributions’ software stores. Popular examples include Pop! _OS and Linux Mint - they have Flathub integrated into their software stores. I went to Linux Mint and Pop!_OS due to the Snaps issue. Flatpaks seem better than Snaps. :v:

#11

HJV I agree with you that flatpak is better. Nevertheless both snap and flatpak leave residual files in the system so it’s not true that they work like a closed box. They have advantages: No matter what the Linux version is, they put in the box everything needed for the program to run Installation is faster and easier. The goal would be allow users to choose the way. I like to decide and Linux so far has allowd me to do it.

1 Like
#12

Same for me. I have moved all my machines to Mint Mate 20.3 now and will stay with Mint now. I strongly dislike snap and I don't have the time, nor the motivation, having to start to remove snap from the system each time I do a fresh install.

Mint Mate 20.3 is stable as a rock and it has the 5 year LTS support as well.

And design wise, you can choose whatever you like anyway. I also love the update manager. And the perfect integration of compiz, my fav display manager.

As a big plus, there is the Mint Mate Menu, which is, in my eyes, second to none, and works flawlessly, including drag and drop rearranging of the favourites, and also giving access to recently used files AND applications. Best menu I have ever used in any OS.

#13

I got rid of snap and there are no wastes of it in Ubuntu Mate. I presume that if Cannonical is going in that way they would not force you to use snap as a dumb box. They will leave opened another doors. If not I'll then be thinking to move to another distro.