Ubuntu's "AI Kill Switch" Is Achieved By Removing Snaps, Initially Opt-In

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DoubleOwl7777@reddit

the true kill switch is using debian and not ubuntu...

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AliceCode@reddit

I use Arch btw. I haven't tried Debian out, what's it like? Probably not terribly different.

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Sushtee@reddit

Packages are really old in order to provide stability, honestly I don't think that's suited for a regular desktop use.

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acewing905@reddit

On the flip side, why do you need the latest for regular desktop use?

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Sushtee@reddit

I believe it's important to have a desktop environment that benefits from the newest fixes and general improvements, but that's just how I see it.

I also want to add that having an old kernel or/and drivers isn't great for gaming.

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Why do I need my file manager and my Bluetooth manager to be bleeding edge? I'd much rather have something that's well trodden and well tested than a distro that shits out buggy updates to me all the time.

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Sushtee@reddit

By DE I didn't mean DE's app ecosystem, and having a more recent Bluetooth can fix issues yes

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GladCheetah6048@reddit

It's more likely to cause issues. Well tested stable versions on the Debian repos are less likely to have bugs than the latest bleeding edge version.

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Sushtee@reddit

I don't think so, more up to date Bluetooth might have improvements over older versions. A stable, well tested package doesn't mean a performant one.

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acewing905@reddit

If you're the type of person who'd upgrade to the latest packages just because it "might have improvements", then Debian definitely isn't for you. But most ordinary users aren't doing that either, so Debian works well in that regard

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Sushtee@reddit

Most users just want a good experience, I'm not sure an old DE and kernel will provide that at its best.

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acewing905@reddit

So what gives a good experience now will suddenly be unable to do that a couple of years later? Can you give some specific examples as to how this would impact a normal user?

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Sushtee@reddit

By saying that you're assuming every DEs are perfects - they're not.

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acewing905@reddit

Nothing is ever going to be perfect, no matter how many updates. So, back to my question. What examples can you give that an ordinary user trying Debian would face problems as opposed to a bleeding edge distro?

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Sushtee@reddit

A simple exemple is Plasma, which tends to really improve over new versions. It would be sad if a user didn't benefit from the bug fixes of such a DE.

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acewing905@reddit

You still haven't mentioned specific problems. All you're giving are just generalized vague ideas rather than real world usage

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Sushtee@reddit

Just recently Nvidia found vulnerabilities in the drivers and patched them on the more recent versions, while the ones debian provides are EOL and so still have the vulnerabilities.

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McGuirk808@reddit

I actually game on Debian Stable. Up-to-date nvidia drivers was handled by adding an nvidia apt repository.

There is a clean method to get a more up-to-date kernel (backports), but I haven't bothered; performance is good for me on the default stable kernel.

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silenceimpaired@reddit

I think Flatpaks largely address this concern. Also I live in VMs so a stable OS is more important. I can run Arch and Fedora in a VM with GPU passthrough if Debian isn't enough.

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Sushtee@reddit

I can run Arch and Fedora in a VM with GPU passthrough if Debian isn't enough.

That's an interesting setup, I'd recommend you to check out [Bedrock Linux](http://bedrocklinux.org/

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VelvetElvis@reddit

"Improvements" are often relative. Even minor unexpected UI changes in software you use every day to put food in your mouth can be disconcerting.

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Sushtee@reddit

By improvements I meant real improvements, for exemple power efficiency improvements

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Ghigs@reddit

The typical scenario is you use some package, you can't figure out why something is working, so you pop over to some support channel, and when they ask what version you are using they are all like "that's ancient you need to get some extra unstable nightly snapshot or we won't talk to you".

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Sushtee@reddit

I'm pretty sure Debian provides LTS versions (I can be totally wrong) and the distro has a certain réputation so I doubt it would happen.

My point was having latest fixes/features for important packages such as DE components, kernel or Nvidia drivers, but apparently Debian provides new packages in another repository (which I didn't know about).

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NoLemurs@reddit

Honest question. What packages do you need that aren't up to date?

I've been running Debian for years (mostly on stable), and rarely run into issues. Especially in recent years, most new software seems to be web-apps anyway, so I just need a stable platform to run my web browser.

I do avoid the big integrated DEs (Gnome/KDE). Are those the main driver for people wanting new packages?

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Sushtee@reddit

NVIDIA drivers, kernel and Plasma.

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NoLemurs@reddit

That makes sense. So, really, desktop environments, and new-ish hardware are the main issues.

If's been a long time since I've bothered with gaming hardware or anything cutting edge. My default policy for computers is to buy last year's model, usually with an integrated GPU, so I really don't run into those issues.

I can see how someone who wants to use the latest hardware would run into issues with Debian though.

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notam00se@reddit

Bigger picture for me is that I use linux, windows, and macos.

Most developers are good, but there is always a chance of version mismatch between systems causing problems. So I either keep windows and macos app version held back, or I break debian to keep it current.

Best first hand example is Digikam. I sync the database files from machines to NAS and then back to clients. Debian is somewhere near version 8.6, current version for other systems and flatpak is 9.0. From 8.4? to 8.7 there were huge changes in face recognition and detection. I didn't want an older version being worse and propagating those worse workflows to newer installs. Appimage had HIDPI scaling issues, flatpak doesn't have hardware accelleration for my Intel GPU. So repo install is my only option.

It has been stable for decades, but things like Keepass and password managers are something I want to keep versions the same across my platforms since my password manager is offline and manually sync'd.

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reddanit@reddit

For my use case, where I stick to stable Debian on my laptop/servers, my main desktop ends up 90% on testing/unstable due to GPU upgrade to a recent AMD models. Part of it is certainly luck, but all 4 of my last GPU upgrades had significant reasons to run kernels/mesa a bit newer than stable Debian at the time.

On the other hand I'm 100% content to run stable on my Laptops, which I also use(d) for all sorts of stuff, including some light dev work.

Two servers I also maintain obviously run stable Debian.

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Trenchdick3@reddit

Use Sid or Testing then. Also, there's backports.

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FarReachingConsense@reddit

I have been using it on Desktop for 10 years now, no issues. If you need newer software, you have Debian backports, flatpaks, and manual installs.

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Sushtee@reddit

Yeah you're right

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modified_tiger@reddit

I'm not the person you asked, but having used both (Arxh from 2009 to 2019) and now using Debian: Debian does more up front with packaging, like configurations, recommended and suggested packages, providing an easier to use distro overall. Debian configs tend to try to ease some of your burden wherea in Arch you get vanilla upstream configs that often need modification.

There's also talk about Debian being "older" than Ubuntu package-wise, but both sort of release on opposite years. Debian doesn't have a hard release date until fairly late in the cycle, usually no more than three years.

I use Debian instead of Arch because I specifically don't want to have to track upstream's changes for most of my system. Anything I need updated lives in a distrobox or flatpak so I have a stable (unchanging) system with up to date everything else I need newer than Debian has.

FWIW I miss arch but just don't want a rolling release distro anymore. Arch and Debian are equally tied with NixOS for my favorite Linux distros.

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modified_tiger@reddit

I actually used Aurora, a Universal Blue image built on Kinoite, for like a year and a half. The big issue I had was teeny tiny points of friction with image customization where I couldn't get third party apps I wanted set up, so I switched to Debian and took a lot of those patterns with me (Flatpak + brew + distrobox).

I feel a pull to go back every couple months but also like whete I am on Debian.

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Quexth@reddit

You might want to check out Fedora Silverblue. It has been a while, there might be non-Fedora alternatives now if you are not keen on Fedora.

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C0rn3j@reddit

I specifically don't want to have to track upstream's changes for most of my system.

What software did you actually have to track changes for?

Worst I've had to do in the decade I've been using Arch is merging a pacnew file.

The only more annoying part was on my Arch servers, where sometimes there is a bigger change required for my email stack, but it's not like you'd avoid doing any of this on Debian upgrades.

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gesis@reddit

I went through major glibc/gcc changes and the switch to systemd on arch. It sucked.

I've had to do the same on deb. The deb transition was smoother and required less manual intervention.

Now though, I just check the release notes for updates and only really have to do anything between major versions every few years [on deb and alma].

I run alpine on my laptops, and that's even easier, since outside of the base system and Wayland, everything is flatpaks.

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modified_tiger@reddit

You're right with the timing of the changes. But I would only have to do it at the next release, not the next likely less than weekly update.

The bigger (but still small) issue are the manual interventions for end user software but those might be once a year, so not such a big deal.

Nothing I'm saying is to imply one is better than the other, I just prefer Debian currently for my stuff because these are not daily concerns but ones I can put off to a weekend sometime in the future when the next Debian release happens.

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C0rn3j@reddit

I would only have to do it at the next release

I personally hate that, because you're stacking multiple issues on top of each other, which is much more annoying to deal with, as opposed to dealing with one thing at a time across time.

But hey, to each their own.

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regeya@reddit

Ubuntu is built on Debian, so if you've done package management on Ubuntu it's not much different, just a stricter Free Software policy and no Snaps or PPA. My personal advice would be to install Stable and upgrade to Testing for a desktop, if you want one that's as close to Ubuntu as possible.

If I was setting up a desktop for me, it'd be the above Testing install, then make sure Flatpaks are enabled, and also make sure nss-mdns is enabled. Otherwise packages on Debian tend to have sane defaults.

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AliceCode@reddit

I don't like Ubuntu, personally.

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regeya@reddit

Fair; nowadays I run Fedora KDE almost exclusively. Not the distribution I'd enthusiastically recommend to a totally clueless noob but most of the time I don't think it's really any more difficult than a Mac or Windows. If anything for a lot of mundane tasks, it's easier.

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AliceCode@reddit

I'm definitely no noob, so maybe I'll check it out one of these days. I've been thinking of giving up on Windows on my no longer used Desktop. I just keep windows on it for gaming, but I rarely olay games, so I'm thinking of installing Linux. Just gotta decide on a distro.

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McGuirk808@reddit

I generally don't recommend Testing. It's normally fine, but when getting close to release bugs can end up unfixed for a while and leave things broken. Sid's usually a nicer experience if you're not wanting to help test for the next release.

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creeper6530@reddit

It's wonderful if you feel overwhelmed by having to update twice a day and don't have bleeding edge hardware. I daily drive it.

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-sussy-wussy-@reddit

I've used every major distro. Debian is very stable, but a lot of packages would be out of date compared to what you would get on Arch or something Arch-based. But you can still just manually install what you want if you need the latest and greatest for some reason.

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shogun77777777@reddit

It’s stable and not bloated

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AliceCode@reddit

Is that in comparison to Arch? I've never really felt like Arch was unstable or bloated.

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shogun77777777@reddit

In comparison to Ubuntu obviously

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AliceCode@reddit

Why would that be obvious? And why in comparison to Ubuntu?

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shogun77777777@reddit

Idk

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odsquad64@reddit

"Stable" is overrated. It doesn't mean bug free, sometimes it means your packages are years out of date and still have bugs that were fixed a long time ago and are missing features you expect them to have.

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shogun77777777@reddit

Okay

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AliceCode@reddit

Hey! You're like me! You just reply with "okay" when you don't feel like wasting your time arguing.

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shogun77777777@reddit

lol

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Sushtee@reddit

I think people don't know what bloated means anymore

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Swizzel-Stixx@reddit

Right? If people are thinking arch is bloated they need to try win 11 for a week lol

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lmpcpedz@reddit

Debian is stable and predictable because it's major update cycle is like every two years.

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nandru@reddit

NIce, I don't have snaps so I wont have to deal with this!

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veechene@reddit

Tbh I have the discord snap but it's my only snap so switching it will be very short and sweet.

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Brave_Elk_6189@reddit

it's not like it's ms copilot yall. They're talking about adding support for open source local llms https://www.xda-developers.com/ai-is-arriving-on-ubuntu-and-its-open-source-local-and-nothing-like-what-youre-worried-about/

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__konrad@reddit

They're talking about adding support for open source local llms

Yeah, but Firefox after backlash added "kill switch" to its 4 local llms...

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

If firefox didn't added a chatbot on the side they wouldn't get any backlash at all as most of the features are quite good and I doubt anyone could hate them

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evilpies@reddit

This is simply not true. A lot of people dislike AI in general.

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Yes but AI to help people with dishabilities interact with PDFs isn't something that most of them would critic. Or translations

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Bayou_wulf@reddit

WCAG 2.2 is a standard for ADA compliance. AI cannot make a compliant document for its life.

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Alternatives texts on PDF images is something that can be generated with a simple algorithm. Whatever you like It or not. And it's a good feature. HTML has that functionallity, but as PDF isn't HTML blind people can not get the info from a non-existant alternative text

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Bayou_wulf@reddit

Have you tried to make a pdf/word document ADA compliant? It's much more than just alternative text for the vision impared.

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

And this has nothing to do with Mozilla's AI?

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PsyOmega@reddit

Generative image AI has been used by people with disabilities for a few years, but they still get bullied over it.

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orygin@reddit

Generative image AI is not an accessibility feature.

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PsyOmega@reddit

Tell that to my disabled friends who use it to create or modify their art.

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Icy-Concentrate2076@reddit

Nice appeal to emotion, we should totally like, destroy the planet, increase power prices, ram prices, hdd prices, ssd prices, not believe any video and photo ever produced again, spread propaganda and scam to elderly people who don't know better, and more evils, to allow some people to draw using only prompts.

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prone-to-drift@reddit

"their art", he said, with conviction.

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orygin@reddit

I have had explicit arguments with someone saying that these accessibility features are just a gimmick and that AI is always bad no matter what...

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Well they are kinda dumb

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Future_Kitsunekid16@reddit

It takes up more space on the screen when I already have a search bar for shit lol

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AssistingJarl@reddit

Which is why it's truly unfortunate that more and more existing, very common, and morally unobjectionable technologies are getting tagged with the "AI" label in an attempt to seem more cutting edge.

The "AI" functions mentioned in the article are text-to-speech and camera auto-focus, for example. I'm not entirely sure if they're being referred to as AI because there's been a gross misunderstanding of where the societal ills and objections are, or if certain people are intentionally trying to confuse the discussion.

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SanityInAnarchy@reddit

The line does get blurry around the edges. I think you could make a moral objection to even that older ML tech, and some of the objections to generative AI apply!

For example: A lot of the objections are really objections to datacenters. LLMs and genAI have driven a massive bubble in dc expansion, and I don't think anyone was running them off of illegal numbers of methane turbines before. But they've always used a lot of water, they've always added extremely few jobs to the local economy, they've often caused light and noise pollution and driven up local power costs, and they've definitely always been used for things that seem frivolous.

I'm not saying there's nothing new with genAI, but if you really lay out all of the social ills and objections, there's a lot of overlap and it's easy to see why different people draw the line in different places.

(That, and I'm sure there are people intentionally trying to confuse the discussion.)

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dnu-pdjdjdidndjs@reddit

Ever since AI we've had the drip drip water (where the water goes drip drip) and then trump gave us infinite water

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FeepingCreature@reddit

no they're tagged with AI because we're an absolute microcosm and most people just see "AI" and think "very advanced".

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Mccobsta@reddit

So many useful things getting thrown in with the llm crap

Even tools that have been around for years are now somewhat classed as "ai"

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Damaniel2@reddit

I hate them. I don't want corporate slop in my browser.

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Translation and accesibility are slop?

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Indolent_Bard@reddit

Those weren't local.

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__konrad@reddit

Currently there are 4 local and 5 non-local chats (as listed in Firefox AI Control settings)

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Indolent_Bard@reddit

Huh, interesting.

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DoubleOwl7777@reddit

id argue firefox always had one with the about:config flag.

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untemi0@reddit

broooooo, why did you read it !!!

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GreenFox1505@reddit

Why would they need to "add support for" local LLMs? Don't existing projects already support Ubuntu?

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adevland@reddit

it's not like it's ms copilot yall. They're talking about adding support for open source local llms

Nobody asked for any of it.

In the best case scenario it's bloatware. And we've got enough of that already.

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Valgorithm-dev@reddit

This is probably the best way to introduce AI. More people should see how they can integrate local models that can run on their computer. I used OpenAI WhisperSync locally the other day and was shocked that it could run and transcribe recordings using weak integrated graphics for even the bigger model.

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Ghigs@reddit

Local models are our only long run hope against what amounts to gun control type controls where only the elite and nation states have access to uncensored models.

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FeepingCreature@reddit

As one of those gun control type, luckily local models are mostly not dangerous so far and the ram crisis is giving us a few years to get our ducks in a row wrt regulation.

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Lawnmover_Man@reddit

......why would anyone read the article? Are you insane?

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Brave_Elk_6189@reddit

😄 aren't these the "rtfm" people? Read The F-ing Marticle

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orygin@reddit

Even pushing the article through an AI for a summary would result in less slop than most of the comments here.

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AnsibleAnswers@reddit

Recently been playing with gemma 3N, which is optimized to run on mobile devices and laptops. It’s subject to hallucinations and bad output like every other LLM but I don’t feel bad about resource usage. Haven’t ran its paces but it would be great if these little, local models have a viable use case.

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Brave_Elk_6189@reddit

Yeah I'm sure there's a use case for accessibility (hallucinations seem like a BIG liability for that though), similar to text-to-speech/speech-to-text models (which make plenty of mistakes but in less critical ways). Besides that, I'm hoping this new feature is just a tool for llms like multipass was for VMs, and is entirely avoidable by the end user if they don't want it.

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AnsibleAnswers@reddit

Probably not reliable enough for accessibility. Might be reliable enough to analyze logs. LLMs are pretty good at spotting stuff in logs quickly.

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Journeyj012@reddit

I guess someone out there will be happy at the AI being added. Canonical is a private company so we can't use the shareholders excuse.

I'm happy it's opt-in instead of opt-out or forced.

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egorf@reddit

I'm sure someone is happy with rust coreutils being added, so ai features will have their fans as well.

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Journeyj012@reddit

if they're faster, output the same, and don't conflict with the licenses that are already in place, I don't care either.

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erwan@reddit

You can also opt-out from using Ubuntu...

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0bl10@reddit

And switch to Fedora, right? Since IBM is so nice and selfless when it comes to user interests.

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Jwhodis@reddit

Why not Debian? Its what Ubuntu is based off of.

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steve09089@reddit

Isn't Debian old as shit though when it comes to packages?

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Melodic_Honeydew_314@reddit

just use testing branch

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Jwhodis@reddit

I haven't noticed any age issues

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Turbulent_Fig_9354@reddit

kind of a false equivalency, fedora is upstream of RHEL and while they share some of their engineers, fedora != red hat

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mrlinkwii@reddit

feodra is using AI iswell https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2025/02/03/looking-ahead-at-2025-and-fedora-workstation-and-jobs-on-offer/

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erwan@reddit

Everyone is free to use whatever they want, but if you find yourself having to disable whatever new feature they put in then maybe Ubuntu isn't the best pick.

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Journeyj012@reddit

do you know what opt-in means?

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Journeyj012@reddit

I think it's also opt-in to care about what someone else's distro is?

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JockstrapCummies@reddit

Me: Happily using Ubuntu since 2008.

Someone on Reddit: RREEEEEEEE NOOOOO YOU CAN'T ENJOY UBUNTUUUU AAAAHHHHHHHHH SNAAAPPPSSSSSS RRREEEEEEEE

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newsflashjackass@reddit

Ubuntu is in some respects like bottled water.

It won't kill you but you can drink the same municipal tap water without involving the middleman and the microplastics and it is less hassle.

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jyte_@reddit

Debian, less hassle ?

Try explain some random human how to update debian to next release...

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newsflashjackass@reddit

Since updates are mostly automatic, you may have meant upgrading.

Hopefully you won't need to upgrade to the next version immediately after install but when you are ready here is a guide.

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-debian-to-latest-version

The main stumbling block seems to be editing the list of repositories to get the new packages. Other than that the upgrade works much like an update.

Perhaps some other distribution makes it easier to upgrade to the next version but that is unlikely to be a decisive factor for daily driving.

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jyte_@reddit

you may have meant upgrading.

that's litteraly what "update debian to next release" is.

Perhaps some other distribution makes it easier to upgrade to the next version but that is unlikely to be a decisive factor for daily driving.

If you reinstall your os every 2 years to have the latest version, maybe. If you just want to upgrade, I grand mother will absolutely not do that. She is already too afraid by a simple update button...

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newsflashjackass@reddit

that's litteraly what "update debian to next release" is.

Ah good. I understood you despite your waste of words.

my mother will absolutely not do that.

Good idea. It might be faster to list the things your mom won't do.

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Flash_Kat25@reddit

> Perhaps some other distribution makes it easier to upgrade to the next version

Some other distribution.. such as Ubuntu.

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newsflashjackass@reddit

I liked the part where you quoted me just to omit relevant context.

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TheOgGhadTurner@reddit

It used to be sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade. I think more recently they changed it to just sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

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jyte_@reddit

Official upgrade documentation. Tell me more about how simple that is.

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TheOgGhadTurner@reddit

So I guess raspbian and Debian are probably a bit different it was never this complex on raspbian.

A lot of the steps sound unnecessary for most users tho. I’m going to be honest I only ever run apt update and apt upgrade and reboot. It updates the repositories it updates the system and any apps and reboots. All the rest of the configuration files should be reconfigured automatically

raspbian update guide.

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jyte_@reddit

update from raspbian (based of debian 12) to raspbian (based of debian 13) will be more tricky. They changed the format for apt source files. Legacy format still works in 13, so even if you do not update it should work. But it will break eventually.

And regardless, you still have to edit a text file as root, when ubuntu is basically clicking a button.

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PsyOmega@reddit

Debian tap water

Yeah but i don't like needing to customize my own pipes. Ubuntu is way more 'just works' than i've ever found Debian to be.

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zaypuma@reddit

Totally. The exact same rationale most people are still using Windows (and Copilot).

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PsyOmega@reddit

Windows is like using clogged pipes and most people hate it.

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Quirky-Reputation-89@reddit

That's...not what they are saying? They are saying if you don't like AI, you are not forced to use Ubuntu.

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Cautiousdream71@reddit

I mean, to each their own.

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Phoenix591@reddit

is it? its got a TON of garbage enabled by default.

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ROFLLOLSTER@reddit

I mean better tts/stt is one of the things they talked about. I don't know why anyone would complain about that really.

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Annas_Pen3629@reddit

It's nothing to worry about. If someone gang breaks into your flat and your PC is online, law inforcement can hand transcripts of their dialogue to a grand jury. That's a handy feature, people should advertise more for this, and insurance companies should outright request it. No online tts, no insurance, in case you ask me.

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OffsetXV@reddit

If someone gang breaks into your flat and your PC is online, law inforcement can hand transcripts of their dialogue to a grand jury

Sounds great. I just hope that at no point did you say anything that a surveillance state might consider dissidence in front of the computer, because that sure would make you look bad in this hypothetical trial.

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ArdiMaster@reddit

People will be mad because they assume that whatever material these models were trained on probably wasn’t used with informed consent.

Unfortunately I can’t even say that that’s an unreasonable assumption.

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turtleship_2006@reddit

Canonical is a private company so we can't use the shareholders excuse.

Why not? Private companies still have shareholders...

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Indolent_Bard@reddit

Epic Games is also private, they still have investors.

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ExactFun@reddit

Private companies have shareholders.

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VexingRaven@reddit

WTF is an AI Kill Switch and where did this discourse come from? It's Opt-In, why does it need a "kill switch"?

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redundant78@reddit

phoronix gonna phoronix. it's literally just opt-in local open source LLM support and the "kill switch" is just uninstalling a couple snaps. the whole framing is absurd lol

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VexingRaven@reddit

I'm not sure we can entirely blame Phoronix in this case when the thread they are referencing specifically contained someone asking about a kill switch, and people in this thread are going nuts about it too. People have lost their collective minds about AI.

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Journeyj012@reddit

Kill Switch is the new buzzword for "toggle"

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Ok_Mammoth589@reddit

The only reason we need a buzzword is to soothe the hypersensitive feelings of the ai haters who need coddling

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blimpin_aint_easy@reddit

Ubuntu L but killswitch W, I'm all for having a snap killswitch

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creeper6530@reddit

No, the killswitch is removing a select few snap packages. Snapd itself is integrated too deep

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vividboarder@reddit

sudo apt remove snapd works on my machines... At least on Ubuntu Server.

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nandru@reddit

nah, I nuke snaps everywhere I have root access. So far the only thing I needed to manually add a repo for was firefox

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Groogity@reddit

Using Ubuntu and nuking snaps is odd to me why not just use anything else?

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nandru@reddit

I like the way they set up the desktop, the mostly up-to-date software and most 3rd party software targets them

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Groogity@reddit

Fair enough whatever works for you

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AmarildoJr@reddit

it will initially be opt-in and in effect the "AI kill switch" for Ubuntu will be a matter of just removing some Snaps

"Initially opt-in", so later it will be forced. And "just removing some snaps" is not an answer since I believe even core system components are forced through snaps these days and removing snapd essentially breaks the system in some ways.

The best way to avoid this is just not using Ubuntu.

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vividboarder@reddit

For Ubuntu 27.04 and beyond, the plan is to have an initial setup wizard around prompt users on the AI native features they may want or not. Part of this is being done since due to the large size of LLMs, they won't be baked into the Ubuntu install ISOs but have to be downloaded after the fact and thus can be punted off to an initial configuration wizard.

The article has a lot of clarifying information, if you take a look.

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MeDerpWasTaken@reddit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

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HoustonBOFH@reddit

I remove snapd entirely on every install. Not that hard, but you do need to add some repos for unsnapped dekstop apps. Will start on 26.04 soon as it has just released, but nothing prior has been unable to unsnap.

And it is still supported without snap is you need it.

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Polar_Banny@reddit

Judging these practices no wonder people dislike this abomination.

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Catmato@reddit

Clickbait title. It doesn't remove snaps altogether, it just removes some snaps.

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turtleship_2006@reddit

I mean it's a bit unclear but that's not what I assumed it to mean

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Catmato@reddit

👍

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Nevermynde@reddit

Yup, and Ubuntu-snap-ragebait. I, for one, am triggered.

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Repave2348@reddit

To remove triggered you need to disable snaps.

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bitcraft@reddit

So another reason to avoid Ubuntu.

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dswhite85@reddit

Another user that clearly didn't read the article...

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MustUnderstandTrains@reddit

I need canonical pushing out AI snaps as much as I need to be shot in the face.

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dswhite85@reddit

That’s literally not what’s happening. This is why it’s important to read instead of knee jerk everything.

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MustUnderstandTrains@reddit

They are packaging local LLM's into snaps. I said I don't want those.

Please tell me what I got wrong.

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bitcraft@reddit

I read it just fine. They are starting with “opt out” then not committing to that for the next LTS. Furthermore we don’t know how they will handle their snap dependencies and I would not be surprised if they eventually tie the desktop snaps to the AI parts.

So please STFU and don’t reply if you have nothing to offer.

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Shap6@reddit

So please STFU and don’t reply if you have nothing to offer.

as opposed to your FUD getting mad about something that hasnt even happened yet?

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Tired8281@reddit

removing snaps

Don't threaten me with a good time!

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