[bravetraveler]

Dark pattern: a user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things

The 'interface' (tool availability) has been crafted such that users are likely to favor Snap over Flatpak... because Flatpak now takes a step that only serves to prop up Snap: installation of the runtime

I don't want to overstate the significance of this -- it's about as dark as dawn-break. Canonical is still maintaining/offering it, and I can get behind supporting Their Thing.

The worst thing about this is the messaging. If they had just done the thing and said nothing, I'd have nothing to complain about.

It could be taken as curation -- the messaging aims to convince that fewer options = more better.

edit: Some irony to this is we'd be closer to their idealized state of 'one way to install' had they instead chosen to adopt Flatpak over insist that Snap has to happen.

[hitekker]

The ignorance about dark patterns is partially innocent and partially motivated. Some people cannot believe that their favorite kind of company (OSS, for example) would ever lie to them; the thought of it is too painful to bear. Or they can't believe their favorite company (Apple, for example) would lie to them or lie to others.

Garden variety self-deception.

[Gordonjcp]

Okay, but can you explain why getting rid of an obsolete and broken packaging system and replacing it with one that's nearly modern is a "dark pattern"?

[Gordonjcp]

You haven't answered the question, though.

> I don't want to overstate the significance of this -- it's about as dark as dawn-break.

I don't see any significance in it. What exactly is the problem?

[bravetraveler]

I feel like I have, they've dripped water on our face and called it rain.

I don't have an issue in them preferring their solutions, I have an issue with them trying to convince us that it's for our benefit -- not theirs.

XKCD standards summarizes my sentiment well: https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/standards.png

edit: Snap in itself isn't a dark pattern. I've explained why I feel like this change, and particularly the handling, is.

[Gordonjcp]

They're doing stuff a different way. They're getting rid of messy, broken, obsolete .deb and switching to something that's nearly as advanced as what Haiku had five years ago, Mac OSX had nearly 20 years ago, and RiscOS had 35 years ago...