this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Okay...
What's a Steam Snap? I don't know what that is
Snap is a sandboxed environment to install applications in.
Flatpak is a more portable implementation of the same broad idea, it downloads a chroot and runs applications from within using a separate program called bubblewrap (one could, in theory, use chroot to run apps from within the downloaded flatpak images, bubblewrap offers further isolation through things like namespaces and cgroups etc. )
Snap, unlike flatpak, is a Canonical specific implementation that has a reputation for breaking a lot of things.
It's perfectly possible to isolate a steam install, NixOS does that by default to even get it running (on NixOS nothing is where any binary blob expects it to be). There was a very brief issue with experimental steam when they tightened up their own sandboxing and doing sandbox-in-sandbox broke stuff but that was fixed before release as Valve is, indeed, responsive, even if the distribution isn't officially supported. But you gotta have some professionalism and have institutional continuity, they don't want to deal with J. Random Hacker doing a one-off packaging job. Or distros trying to be smart and replace the steam runtime with their own library versions. Basically, assume that the whole thing runs directly on the kernel, make sure to have graphics drivers, and you'll be fine running it as-is.
Snaps are a relatively recent way of packaging application installations in certain flavors of Linux. Steam is Valve's game distribution platform (amongst other things).
There's an unofficial Snap package to install Steam and it apparently doesn't work so good
It's also worth mentioning that the snap system is quite disliked by a lot of users for various reasons, like stuff not working right.
I suppose this article is a good example of snaps not working right.
Snap is Canonical's (developers of Ubuntu) attempt at their own containerized software package format, conceptually similar to Flatpak in some ways but differing in details of implementation. One major note is the back end is kept closed source so you cannot host your own Snap repo, which ruffles some feathers.
Apparently distributing Steam (Valve's video game store/launcher) in Snap format is causing some problems.