On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:03:26 -0700
William Morder <doctor_contendo@...> wrote:

> On Thursday 25 April 2019 16:08:53 E. Liddell wrote:
> > On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:37:22 +0200
> >
> > Uwe Brauer <oub@...> wrote:
> > > It is not you have to install it via snap (so you have to install snap
> > > first) once you have installed snap, then
> > >
> > > sudo snap install mathpix-snipping-tool
> > >
> > > Will install it.
> >
> > I checked the developer's website ( mathpix.com ).  The application appears
> > to be closed-source.  Snap ( snapcraft.io ) is a distro-hostile "universal"
> > installer program that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, 
> 
> Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I installed snap just to test this 
> mathpix thingie, but it didn't install any other packages, so no harm done (I 
> hope). I finally got my system running GNU/Linux with all free/libre software 
> (not sure where TDE stands on this ...), so I wouldn't want to keep it on my 
> system. 

As far as I know, the snap application itself isn't harmful, but it bypasses
your distro's package manager, which is a recipe for all kinds of potentially
bad things and just general weirdness.  I've never looked into it in enough
depth to find out whether it has any kind of license enforcement or whether
anyone other than the person who packaged the program tests this stuff
(my guess would be no and no).  The only reason it exists is to allow people 
who want to write closed-source software for Linux to create only one 
package instead of having to produce a .deb and a .rpm *and* a properly 
versioned list of dependencies, oh the horror!  ('Scuse me while I roll my 
eyes.)

E. Liddell