According to TheRegister.com, multiple major vendors presented at the Ubuntu Summit 25.10 at Canonical’s London headquarters, with a recurring theme of offering official Snap packages. DreamWorks Animation’s Randy Packer discussed “Shooting for the Moonray” while Proton VPN CTO Samuele Kaplun presented on their “GPL-Powered Journey with Ubuntu,” with both companies working on Snap distribution. Industry giants including Google, Nvidia, and Qualcomm participated in AI-focused sessions, while Canonical informally estimates the Snap Store has approximately ten times the traffic of Flathub. The source also notes that despite vocal criticism, Ubuntu variants represent the default for most Linux users, with Steam survey data suggesting about 20% of users run Ubuntu-based systems. This growing vendor support suggests Snap may be reaching critical adoption.
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The Snap Adoption Paradox
What we’re witnessing is a classic case of enterprise adoption outpacing community sentiment. While Linux enthusiasts have loudly criticized Snap for its slower startup times, automatic updates, and Canonical’s control over the repository, major commercial vendors see a different value proposition. For companies like DreamWorks Animation and Proton VPN, Snap provides a standardized deployment mechanism that works across multiple Ubuntu versions and derivatives. This eliminates the fragmentation headache that has long plagued Linux software distribution, where maintaining packages for dozens of different distributions and versions becomes a support nightmare.
Enterprise Needs Versus Community Preferences
The divergence between enterprise and community preferences reveals fundamental differences in priorities. Enterprises value consistency, security, and simplified maintenance—areas where Snap’s transactional updates and confinement model excel. Meanwhile, individual users prioritize performance, customization, and avoiding vendor lock-in. Canonical’s challenge has been balancing these competing needs while building a sustainable business model around Ubuntu. The Ubuntu Summit presentations suggest they may be succeeding with the enterprise segment, even if some community members remain skeptical.
The AI and Hardware Convergence
The involvement of Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Google in Ubuntu’s AI initiatives signals a broader industry trend. As AI workloads become more specialized, hardware vendors need reliable software platforms that can deploy consistently across diverse environments. The Ubuntu AI images and specialized platforms like Qualcomm’s IoT offerings represent a strategic move to capture the emerging edge AI market. For hardware manufacturers, having a standardized software deployment method through Snap reduces support complexity when dealing with everything from development boards to enterprise servers.
The Market Reality Check
Canonical’s informal claim about Snap Store traffic being ten times Flathub’s deserves scrutiny, but the underlying trend is telling. Even if the actual multiple is lower, the direction is significant. The absence of official Snap packages for major applications like Chrome, Edge, and VS Code remains a concern, as these companies prefer maintaining their own repositories. However, the growing list of vendors embracing Snap—including those presenting at the Ubuntu Summit—suggests the format is gaining momentum where it matters most: with commercial software providers who need reliable distribution channels.
Future Ecosystem Implications
If Snap continues gaining enterprise traction, we could see a bifurcation in the Linux packaging ecosystem. Traditional package managers might dominate the enthusiast and developer space, while Snap captures the enterprise and commercial application market. This wouldn’t be unprecedented—similar divisions exist in other technology domains. The key question is whether Canonical can address performance concerns while maintaining the security and reliability benefits that appeal to enterprise users. The involvement of major animation studios like DreamWorks with projects like Moonray suggests that for certain high-performance use cases, the trade-offs are already acceptable.
The Competitive Packaging Landscape
Snap’s growth comes amid continued competition from Flatpak, AppImage, and traditional package management. Each format serves different needs, and the market appears large enough to support multiple approaches. However, Canonical’s focus on the enterprise and IoT segments through initiatives like Inference Snaps for AI model deployment shows a strategic targeting of growth areas rather than trying to win every desktop user. This focused approach might ultimately prove more sustainable than attempting to please everyone in the diverse Linux ecosystem.
