Ubuntu 20.04 switches to Snap Store

The mailing list for the Ubuntu development team shows that the upcoming release of Ubuntu 20.04 will come with a pre-seeded Snap app by default. ubuntu-desktop and ubuntu-minimal meta-packages have been introduced in the app store to replace common apt/repo versions.

It should be noted that this is not a new app store, but it happens to have the same name as the current Ubuntu Software store and is also based on GNOME, except that it is only packaged as a Snap application. There have been largely no change in functionality.

The repackaged app store still allows users to browse and install regular apt packages from Ubuntu archives. It still supports handling deb installers and is still capable of firmware updates.

Ubuntu users seeking Flatpak/Flathub support will need to first install the regular apt version of Ubuntu Software because the related gnome-software-plugin-flatpak is not available through Snap.