After creating a fresh installation of Ubuntu 24.04, I installed DEB Firefox from APT by following Mozilla’s instructions from here. But I noticed that it was secretly replaced with Snap Firefox. I was able to verify this by checking the About Firefox page. This is the third time I noticed this.

  • sourov@lemm.eeOP
    41·
    11 hours ago

    Since when this became a known thing? I’m aware that the snap version is installed when the user is trying to install the deb version of Firefox by running,

    sudo apt install firefox

    But I never heard that the installed DEB version of Firefox is replaced by Snap version of Firefox.

    • Routhinator@startrek.websiteEnglish
      9·
      10 hours ago

      The deb version is a pointer to the snap in their repos. Nothings being replaced, it no longer exists. The deb version of Firefox in Ubuntu repos is a wrapper that installs snap and has no binaries in it. Has been for 3 years or so.

      • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
        2·
        9 hours ago

        It’s more than that. Ubuntu copies the Debian repos and then applies their own changes on top. Debian has a native (DEB) Firefox package, so Ubuntu specifically has to remove it for every new version.

    • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
      21·
      9 hours ago

      Well then you haven’t been following it closely. As someone else said, the reason is simple: the Snap version is more recent (like it or not) and in Ubuntu apt is configured to take into account Snap packages.

      • Morphit @feddit.uk
        3·
        5 hours ago

        Canonical added an epoch prefix to the firefox version number. Because that epoch (1) is higher than the implicit default (0), the official ubuntu dummy package is always considered to be a higher version than the official Mozilla package. apt doesn’t look at snap packages, it installs the deb, but the ubuntu deb just runs snap install firefox and basically nothing else.