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Xubuntu 26.04 can be installed and operated without any Snaps. You can even, easily and safely, remove the entire Snap infrastructure from it. If you want that, proceed like this:
1. Download the Minimal edition of Xubuntu, because that one doesn't have any Snaps in it, although it does contain the Snap infrastructure. Create a bootable medium with the iso, boot from that medium and install Xubuntu Minimal. Then boot into your newly installed Xubuntu.
2. Xubuntu Minimal is very, well, minimal... So after installation, you first need to (temporarily?) install a basic provisional web browser that doesn't come as a Snap package, which will allow you to view the how-tos on this web page with it. For that, proceed as follows:
a. Launch a terminal window: Menu button - Accessories - Terminal Emulator
b. Type the following command line into the terminal:
sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser
Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Xubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. Press Enter again.
c. This'll allow you to use copy/paste to transfer the terminal commands that are part of this how-to, into the terminal. So launch your new web browser (aptly called Web in the Xubuntu menu) and surf to this web page with it.
3. Execute the following two terminal commands, in order to remove the Snap infrastructure (use copy/paste):
sudo apt-get purge snapd
sudo rm -rfv /var/cache/snapd
4. Install a text editor, namely Xfce's native Mousepad:
sudo apt-get install mousepad
5. Create a settings file that'll essentially knock down Snap priority as low as it can get, in order to prevent Snaps from potentially sneaking in again at some point in the future:
sudo touch /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
6. Open that empty settings file for editing:
pkexec mousepad /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
7. Copy and paste the following blue text block into that empty settings file:
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10
Save and close the modified file.
8. Now you're going to install Firefox straight from Mozilla. For that, you need to add the Mozilla source for it. First install the key of the source (this is one long line, don't chop it up):
wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null
Then this even longer single line for installing the actual source:
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null
9. Now create an appropriate priority file:
sudo touch /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla
10. Open that settings file for editing:
pkexec mousepad /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla
Copy and paste the following blue text block into it:
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.mozilla.org
Pin-Priority: 1000
Save and close the modified file.
11. Update your software sources information:
sudo apt-get update
12. Install Firefox:
sudo apt-get install firefox
13. If your system is non-English localized, now install the appropriate Firefox localization file for your language. When in doubt as to what file you need to install for your language, you can check the available localization files with this command:
apt-cache search firefox-l10n
For example, for a Dutch localized system:
sudo apt-get install firefox-l10n-nl
14. If you wish, you can at this point remove the basic web browser Web (epiphany-browser), as it has become superfluous:
sudo apt-get purge epiphany-browser
15. If you want to have a second full-fledged web browser, you can for example install Google Chrome. Installation can be done very easily, simply by double-clicking the installer that you can download at Google.
16. Install the other software that you need, like Libre Office and such. You can use Synaptic Package Manager for that (or the terminal, of course). If you prefer a nice-looking "software store" instead, you can install the one from Gnome, which has no links to Snaps:
sudo apt-get install gnome-software
After it has been installed, you'll find it in the Xubuntu menu under the name "Software". You have to look closely to find its search feature, but Software does have a tiny magnifying glass in the upper left corner, that you can click in order to launch its search feature.
17. Finish the job by applying these safe speed tweaks (*click*).
Then: Enjoy!
Want more tips?
Do you want more tips and tweaks? There's a lot more of them on this website!
For example:
Avoid 10 fatal mistakes
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