Heya folks! With the next linux-current kernel update, we are dropping the AppArmor patchset from Canonical. This means that Snaps will now be unconfined if you are using the current kernel. Our LTS kernel will still have the AppArmor patches applied. Dropping these patches is the first step in ending support of Snaps on Solus. Snaps will still be supported for the rest of 2024, they will just be running unconfined. Long-term, Snap users are encouraged to explore alternative solutions, such as Flatpak.
We realize that this notice may be rather sudden. Unfortunately, we are in the position where our linux-current kernel 6.8 has reached End of Life, meaning it no longer receives security patches, but Canonical appear to be skipping updating the AppArmor patchset for kernel 6.9, thus preventing us from updating the kernel. So, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We've been planning on doing this soon anyway (since the end of last year), but now our hand has been forced.
Dropping the AppArmor patchset has several benefits for us. To start with, the patchset is huge; it is upwards of 60 separate patches, meaning it is a significant maintenance burden. Since the set is maintained and updated by Canonical, we can only update to a new kernel after they've updated all of those patches, which sometimes takes a long time, or even doesn't happen at all, like now.
Not applying the patches means that we can generate ISO images on our infrastructure servers. Right now, ISOs can only be generated on systems using the Solus kernel, due to our AppArmor hooks. This means that every week, someone on the team has to use their system to build all the images, and then upload around 10GB of ISOs to the download server. The same goes for full Solus releases. By dropping the AppArmor patches, we can skip all of that and generate images on the server directly.
Going forward, Flatpaks will be the preferred way of getting software that isn't in our official repository. They are integrated in both GNOME Software and KDE Discover, making it easier than ever to not only install, but also update, Flatpak software on your systems. They also have broader upstream support, since Flatpak is developed by a cross-distribution community, whereas Snap is developed and managed by Canonical, and largely seems to target Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives.
