Snaps were one of the main reasons I moved from Mint to Ubuntu.
Traditional package management is a terrible fit for modern systems and apps.
If you have dozens of apps and they each have dozens of dynamically linked dependencies, you'll probably get an occasional compatibility issue.
At first I really liked Flatpak, but the ecosystem isn't there. Everything I use is in Snapcraft, with Flatpak I still would occasionally have to hand install something or add a custom deb repo.
My only real complaint is the proprietary backend. It doesn't directly affect me much, since it's not like I'd want to use an alternate store when the official one has everything, but it does get in the way of adoption without seeming to benefit canonical that much.
Companies are way too afraid of FOSS competitors, they forget how much users like convenience and standardization and sticking with stock settings.
In my experience - using Linux since 1992, Debian since 1997 - "traditional" package management is quite capable at avoiding compatibility issues related to dynamically linked dependencies. Linux has had library versioning for a very long time - something which made it stand out compared to the 'DLL Hell' Windows users were used to - and it is quite common to have multiple versions of libraries installed and in use. Given these conditions I do not consider package management a "terrible fit" for "modern systems and apps" - whatever those might be. I do see a use for systems like AppImage which come in handy for applications which are only used occasionally (or even only once) where the increased start-up time and reduced integration do not matter.
It does seem to work 99.9% of the time, but when you have a dozen programs with more dependencies than you can count, some are not in the official repos, and you want more up to date stuff, being able to reproduce the whole environment of a package seems like the best option to me.
Deb packages are rock solid for the most part if you use standard distro packages, but the moment you want something newer or third party, there's no guarantee it will work well with some other random third party thing you also have.
Especially when sometimes apps might even depend on bugs and break when they get fixed.
Snaps mostly solve the reduced integration issues(Or at least try to, some stuff isn't perfect yet?) with all their plugs and interfaces and whatnot.
Traditional package management is a terrible fit for modern systems and apps.
If you have dozens of apps and they each have dozens of dynamically linked dependencies, you'll probably get an occasional compatibility issue.
At first I really liked Flatpak, but the ecosystem isn't there. Everything I use is in Snapcraft, with Flatpak I still would occasionally have to hand install something or add a custom deb repo.
My only real complaint is the proprietary backend. It doesn't directly affect me much, since it's not like I'd want to use an alternate store when the official one has everything, but it does get in the way of adoption without seeming to benefit canonical that much.
Companies are way too afraid of FOSS competitors, they forget how much users like convenience and standardization and sticking with stock settings.