Blog posts written by Igor Ljubuncic

Igor Ljubuncic
27 August 2020

Snapcraft corner: Staying on track

Article Desktop

Snapcraft channels and, consequently, tracks are an important, highly useful element of the snap ecosystem. Tracks enable snap developers to publish multiple supported releases of their application under the same snap name. All snaps must have a default track – called latest, but there can be many others, giving both...

Igor Ljubuncic
27 August 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
20 August 2020

Tour of the snap developer account in the Snap Store

Article Desktop

Sometimes, you may wonder, what’s on the other side of the curtain? If you’re a developer contemplating snaps, you surely want to know the range of tools and options available in the developer account dashboard in the Snap Store. But some of the features may not necessarily be immediately visible or relevant until...

Igor Ljubuncic
20 August 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
23 July 2020

Complex problems, clever solutions – unique containers and virtualization snaps

Article Desktop

Snaps come in many shapes and forms: security tools, productivity apps, games, handy utilities, video editing software, and more. Often, most snap package a single application. But snaps can also include services, databases, as well as multiple binaries. How far can this concept scale, you ask? Quite far. There are also...

Igor Ljubuncic
23 July 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
9 July 2020

How to manage snap updates

Article Cloud and server

Updates are an integral part of the software lifecycle. Quite often, they bring improvements, vital security patches – and sometimes, unfortunately, bugs, too. In mission-critical environments, it is important to assert a high degree of oversight and precision over updates. Snaps come with a built-in automatic update...

Igor Ljubuncic
9 July 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
2 July 2020

A blast from the past – Shutter

Article Desktop

The wheel of software turns, and apps come and go. But the end of development does not always mean the end of usefulness. Sometimes, programs stubbornly remain around, offering a complete experience that can withstand the test of time. Several weeks ago, we talked about how you can preserve old applications with snaps....

Igor Ljubuncic
2 July 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
12 June 2020

Productivity is but a snap away – useful applications for your everyday needs

Article Desktop

The state of being productive comes in various guises. Sometimes, you want to do more. Sometimes, you want less. It’s been a while since we toured the Snap Store, and we thought you would be interested in a fresh batch of cool, fun and useful applications that can help you perfect your daily digital activities.

Igor Ljubuncic
12 June 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
5 June 2020

Fabrica – Your self-hosted snap factory

Article Cloud and server

There are many ways one can go about building snaps. You can do it on your local system, by manually running commands in a terminal window. If you have a developer account in the Snap Store, you can use the integrated build functionality to create snaps. You can also use Launchpad, Electron Builder or a

Igor Ljubuncic
5 June 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
29 May 2020

Snapcraft development tips: how to troubleshoot snaps with services

Article Cloud and server

In the past, we have discussed various ways on how to debug and troubleshoot potential issues during snap development. The ability to quickly iterate, resolve build process hurdles and publish the application in a timely manner is essential to a robust, positive development experience. Today, we would like to outline a...

Igor Ljubuncic
29 May 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
20 May 2020

Experimental feature: progressive releases

Article Cloud and server

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” This is a quote famously attributed to the Prussian field marshal Helmuth von Moltke. It is also quite applicable to software development: “No code survives contact with the user.” In mission-critical environments, staggered deployments of software are a crucial part of...

Igor Ljubuncic
20 May 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
7 May 2020

How to preserve old software – with snaps

Article Desktop

If you have been using computers for some time now, you probably have fond memories of this or that piece of software from the past, an application or a game that was fun, useful and just plain great, but which isn’t available any longer. For those who have had a chance to experience the digital

Igor Ljubuncic
7 May 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
4 May 2020

How to upgrade from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS today

Article Desktop

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) was officially released on April 23. This is the latest Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) release, with security patches and updates available until 2025. If you are currently using an older version of Ubuntu, you may be interested in upgrading. In this tutorial, we will show how to safely upgrade

Igor Ljubuncic
4 May 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
27 April 2020

Work smart, not hard – fun applications to help you do less in your day

Article Desktop

Modern-day life is fast, hectic, demanding. Time is precious, and we often need to be able to squeeze every atom of efficiency from our environment and our tools. But sometimes, the best thing you can do for your productivity is – to do nothing. Sometimes, less is more. In this article, we want to show

Igor Ljubuncic
27 April 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
9 April 2020

An adventure through the Snap Store

Article Desktop

An application store with a large number of entries is a double-edged sword. It’s often a good sign of a vibrant, thriving community of software creators, developers and users working together. But then, people new to the ecosystem may struggle finding relevant content right away. The Snap Store currently offers about...

Igor Ljubuncic
9 April 2020

Igor Ljubuncic
27 March 2020

Learn snapcraft by example – multi-app client-server snap

Article DevOps

Over the past few months, we published a number of articles showing how to snap desktop applications written in different languages – Rust, Java, C/C++, and others. In each one of these zero-to-hero guides, we went through a representative snapcraft.yaml file and highlighted the specific bits and pieces developers need...

Igor Ljubuncic
27 March 2020