Hi,
since snap - in contrast to flatpak - it is not enabled by default, is there a downside to enabling snap (reduced system performance/security/…)?
Is the “enable snap support” switch in pamac identical to using sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket?
It depends which DE you are on. On cinnamon neither flatpak or snap where enabled in the gui by default but on kde both are enabled in the gui. Its only a simple thing to enable the pamac plugin for flatpak or snap. Manjaro gives you the choice, there’s even an app image launcher to integrate app images into your app drawer if you want that
Well, I’m on KDE and snap is not enabled by default, but flatpak is, while there is no pamac plugin, flatpaks can be installed from the terminal.
So there is no downside at all?
Check with by ex pacman - Qs pamac, you have pamac-flatpak-plugin installed if you have access to them.
Snap or flatpak, there are philosophical arguments towards one or the other, differences of size with embedded dependancies, better or worse integration with system theming… But at the end, the choice is yours.
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Only KDE, Gnome and XFCE full ISOs enable flatpak and snaps by default. However you have to go to Pamac UI and activate them. Minimal ISOs don’t ship with the packages pre-installed to have out of the box support.
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pamac-flatpak-plugin is not installed, but that’s okay, I don’t need it that often.
Flatpak just worked without activation, but I need to explicitly make the snapd service run on boot, so I was concerned that it is taking up noticeable system resources and that’s why it is not enabled by default. Was that assumption wrong?
Snaps in my opinion are to avoid, though it can be practical sometimes for an application you can not find in repos and if you’re unable to compile yourself and need it right now.
Snap Store is managed by one entity, Canonical, it is up to you if you trust them. Why would you avoid them besides the trust thing? Snaps are slower than native apps, heavier too, using snap slows the system (even if just a little), you in theory have the same thing available in the form of flatpaks, or in the repos or in the AUR.
Snap is the Microsoft Store of Ubuntu, and I don’t want to support it (and everything talked about the topic, google is your friend)
I personally removed the Snap plugin for Pamac, and made sure this crap is removed completely from my system.
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This recent video elaborates on the most critical aspects of snaps.
(It’s the devil 
)
Like you say sometimes you need snap and manjaro gives you the choice. I use clementine to stream from my Google drive account. I’ve tried, official, git, flatpak and snap version, snap is the only one with working Google drive support for me so I use it. Wherever possible I always use official repos first
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My only snap is Skype. I had tried the AUR and flatpak versions but I only managed to get my camera work with snap.
For Pinta, I felt the snap interface buggy, flatpak all OK.
I used Bitwarden snap, until it was put in the official repo.
So it’s up to everybody to compare and to choose.
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