Last August, the person responsible for the Ubuntu Sway remix said that the next version would use snap packages. When the flavor was presented, in its list of features we found that it would not support them, so what they said about two months ago surprised everyone. At first it could be thought that it was a move to get closer to Canonical, but during this weekend it has arrived Ubuntu Sway 24.10 and it is still not possible to use these packages.
Some of us thought that the absence of snap packages was motivated by the rejection of the community. The announcement from a few weeks ago told us that the reason was another, problems in Wayland + Sway that had already been solved. But in the list of new features published There is no mention of Canonical-owned packages on GitHub, and I can confirm that they are not by entering the “sudo snap install vlc” command and seeing the error message. Although, honestly, this is something I have only been able to verify in a Live Session on GNOME Boxes; the installation goes so badly on virtual machines that I have not been able to even open the terminal.
What's new in Ubuntu Sway 24.10
- It still doesn't have snap packages, which is not new but it had been announced in the past.
- Updated to Ubuntu package base 24.10;
- Sway now runs as a fork of the process
ssh-agent, which allowed to solve problems in the operation ofssh-agentin various shells (bash, zsh, fish, etc); - Waybar now automatically restarts when you change its configuration file;
- The graphical clipboard manager, based on
rofi-wayland, is replaced by nwg-clipman; - Rofi (app launcher) is replaced by Fuzzel, which is much, MUCH simpler and lighter;
- Added keyboard shortcuts inhibition….shortcut via
Mod+Ctrl_R; - Various improvements to window rules;
- Various improvements to the default look'n'feel;
- Fixed some minor bugs with the Weather widget and screencast option.
Ubuntu Sway 24.10 it can be downloaded from your official website.
Worth?
I tend to be an honest person, and I don't like to write anything that isn't true. This leads me to sometimes timidly criticize certain programs or developers, although I don't tend to go on a tangent because I know how much even the simplest development costs and I always appreciate people sharing their projects. About Ubuntu Sway 24.10 and earlier versions, the best I can say is: I don't know for sure.
Many of my tests are done in GNOME Boxes. When a distribution allows installation in the GNOME virtual machine program, it runs well and I like what I see, my answer is simply yes. With Ubuntu Sway 24.10 I have had the same experience as with the previous version and all the others: it does not run well in GNOME Boxes and I have had a bad feeling about it, but I know that is not its real performance. To test the operating system you have to do it on real installations, not virtual. And if possible on a hard drive, although a fast USB can give us an idea.
test it
That being said, if you ask me if it's worth it, I'd say that The best thing to do is to test it on the ground. I will not say "yes, look, erase your hard drive, install Ubuntu Sway 24.10 and check it out«, but it can be done if you are already thinking about formatting or changing to another distribution. Sway is a window manager and its performance is far superior to that of practically all desktops, and its base is the same as that used by Ubuntu and all its official and unofficial flavors, such as Linux Mint. If we combine performance with the best base, or if not better, then more popular, it is a hard bet to lose.
However, it is mandatory to learn its keyboard shortcuts, otherwise one can go crazy even trying to close a window.