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  1. Blog
  2. Alan Pope

Alan Pope

Alan Pope

39 posts


Alan Pope
28 August 2018

Fresh Linux Applications On Demand

Cloud and server Desktop

Traditionally Linux users have relied on central distribution-maintained repositories to get new software. With six-month or longer spans between releases, this meant many users just put up with old versions of applications & libraries. In many cases newer software was just missing from the archives. Modern applications iterate quickly, r ...


Alan Pope
14 August 2018

Retro Style Games on Linux

Desktop Desktop

Gaming on Linux doesn’t have to mean buying a ludicrously priced GPU (thanks crypto miners!). Nor does it require a beefy CPU. There’s a real resurgence in retro style gaming going on right now. We’ve pulled together a selection of retro-inspired games for you to play today, on your beloved Linux machine. You can stay ...


Alan Pope
7 August 2018

Fresh Snaps from July 2018

Desktop Article

Another month, and another bumper crop of snaps for you! This time around we have a great mix of developer tools, productivity applications and of course games. All of these are available as snaps which can run on millions of Linux computers around the world. You can stay up to date with our editorial picks ...


Alan Pope
26 July 2018

Bringing Electron applications to millions of Linux users

Desktop Article

Electron is one of the most popular frameworks for creating cross-platform desktop applications right now. Many developers use electron-builder to do the heavy-lifting of package management for their Electron apps. electron-builder has support for creating snap packages out of the box. Bringing your Electron desktop app to Linux can be as ...


Alan Pope
24 July 2018

Graphical Abstinence, Living the Terminal Life

Cloud and server Article

In today’s modern world of multi-gigabyte browser based applications we can get overwhelmed by busy, interrupting graphical environments. Sometimes it’s nice to downsize and focus, VT100-style. So let’s leverage the power of the terminal to get stuff done with a selection of apps, utilities and a couple of games for your Linux console. Yo ...


Alan Pope
19 July 2018

Snaps Add Flexibility with Tracks

Ubuntu Article

Snap packages have a rich set of features beyond getting the latest shiny on your Linux distribution. Tracks enable developers to publish multiple supported releases of their application under the same name. With this enabled, a user can switch tracks at any time to install and use an alternate supported relase of software. Within each ...


Alan Pope
18 July 2018

Perfectly Formed Snaps Challenge

Cloud and server Development

Summer is here (sorry Southern hemisphere), and with the World Cup and Wimbledon over, it’s time for a new challenge! Background Snaps are universal Linux software packages. That means they can work anywhere, and contain anything. Whether you’re a Pythonista, a Golang developer or if C++ is your bag, Snapcraft can package your software as ...


Alan Pope
12 July 2018

Demystifying Snap Confinement

Desktop Development

Snaps introduce some new concepts to the Linux ecosystem which developers can take advantage of, and snap users need to appreciate. When installing a snap, it’s important to understand what parts of the system the application wants access to. It’s up to the user to decide to install (or not) a snap, and the confinement ...


Alan Pope
3 July 2018

Fresh Snaps from June 2018

Desktop Article

It’s mid-way through the year, and we’re seeing no let-up with the flow of new snaps landing in the store, we can barely keep up! This month we’ve picked out some of our favourites from the last month or so of social posts on the Snapcraft Twitter account for you. Many are fresh new snaps ...


Alan Pope
5 June 2018

Fresh Snaps from May 2018

Desktop Desktop

Spring has sprung a bounty of applications in the snap store! We’ve hand picked a small selection from those we highlighted during May 2018. You can stay up to date with our editorial picks by following Snapcraft on Facebook where we share three new and interesting snaps a week. We’d also love to hear what ...


Alan Pope
22 May 2018

Offline Computing – 10 Apps for the Digital Nomad

Desktop Desktop

In today’s always-connected, constantly-inturrupted world, it can often be rewarding to go offline. Disconnecting from the Internet doesn’t mean you have to buy a yurt, live on beans, and get no work done though! While there’s a ton of great apps in the Snap store which rely on a connection to function, there’s also a ...


Alan Pope
16 May 2018

Fresh Snaps from April 2018

Desktop Article

In case you missed it, here are some of the snaps we featured during April 2018. Here you’ll find snaps to enhance your productivity, tools for creatives, IDEs for developers and games for the weekend. You can stay up to date with our editorial picks by following @snapcraftio on Twitter where we share three new ...