Blog posts written by Igor Ljubuncic

Igor Ljubuncic
24 October 2019

Bauh is a nifty snap manager

Desktop Article

If you’re looking for an easy, non-techie way to install snaps, you want a simple store-like utility. Snap integration is available in both GNOME Software and KDE Discover, which cover a large portion of the Linux user base. However, in distributions and desktop environments that do not natively provide a snap-capable graphical frontend, ...

Igor Ljubuncic
17 October 2019

Snaptastic – elementary OS snap manager

Desktop Article

An interesting aspect in the life of any technology is how it propagates. Like organisms in nature, technology follows evolutionary patterns, and sometimes, it can be difficult predicting them. But their observation can be quite telling. Case in point, Snaptastic on elementary OS. Snaptastic is a graphical snap manager utility, available ...

Igor Ljubuncic
4 October 2019

The smart dump plugin

Desktop Article

As you probably already know, snapcraft supports a range of plugins, designed to aid developers in making their snaps in an easier, faster, more transparent fashion. Plugins work with different programming languages and build tools, like Python, Java, Rust, Cmake, and others. By making complex things simpler, they can accelerate your proj ...

Igor Ljubuncic
19 September 2019

Popular snaps per distro

Desktop Article

From a distance, Linux is one big, confusing ball of passionate users and hardcore technical jargon. But as you zoom in, you can start seeing patterns – and differences. Indeed, the individual and vastly varied choice of a favorite distribution has played a major part in shaping the community conversation in the Linux space. But ...

Igor Ljubuncic
29 August 2019

A technical comparison between snaps and debs

Desktop Article

How are snaps different from debs? This is a common question that comes up in technical discussions in the Linux community, especially among developers and users who have just embarked on their snap journey and are interested in learning more details. Indeed, the introduction of self-contained application format likes snaps has created a ...

Igor Ljubuncic
22 August 2019

Useful security software from the Snap Store

Desktop Article

Overall, most Linux distributions offer sane, reasonable defaults that balance security and functionality quite well. However, most of the security mechanisms are transparent, running in the background, and you still might require some additional, practical software to bolster your security array. Back in July, we talked about handy produ ...

Igor Ljubuncic
8 August 2019

Slow snap? Trace-exec to the rescue!

Desktop Article

Slow applications are never fun. But not knowing why an application is not behaving correctly can be even more frustrating. A well-designed system that can diagnose performance or startup issues and inform the user about the problem goes a long way toward mitigating the frustration, and may even help resolve the root cause altogether. Bac ...

Igor Ljubuncic
25 July 2019

Handy productivity software for your home and office

Desktop Article

Discovery is an integral part of any store experience. Sometimes, you know what you want and need, and the experience can be short and transactional. On other occasions, you want to explore, and search for new things. This applies equally to shopping malls as it does to software. In this article, we would like to ...

Igor Ljubuncic
18 July 2019

Handy snapcraft features: Remote build

Desktop Article

As you probably know, there are many ways you can build snaps: locally using snapcraft, with CI systems like Travis, through Launchpad, and also via the free online Snapcraft Build Service. Now, a new preview feature called Remote build also allows you to build snaps for multiple architectures directly from the command line. This has ...

Igor Ljubuncic
4 July 2019

Faster snap development – additional tips and tricks

Desktop Article

Recently, we published several blog posts, aimed at helping developers enjoy a smoother, faster, more streamlined experience creating snaps. We discussed the tools and tricks you can employ in snapcraft to accelerate the speed at which you iterate on your builds. We want to continue the work presented in the Make your snap development fas ...

Igor Ljubuncic
27 June 2019

Development tips and tricks – snap try and snapcraft pack

Desktop Article

Over the past several months, we have shared with you several articles and tutorials showing how to accelerate application development so that a typically demanding, time-consuming process becomes an easier, faster and more fun one. Today, we’d like to introduce some additional tips and tricks. Namely, we want to talk about elegant ways y ...

Igor Ljubuncic
20 June 2019

Parallel installs – test and run multiple instances of snaps

Desktop Article

In Linux, testing software is both easy and difficult at the same time. While the repository channels offer great availability to software, you can typically only install a single instance of an application. If you want to test multiple instances, you will most likely need to configure the remainder yourself. With snaps, this is a ...