Comment 58 for bug 1643706

I understand about confinement and how it is an intrinsic part of the `snap` functionality.

This means that there are many commonly used programs which should **never** be converted to `snap`-based architecture, because they are often used in cases where confinement is not appropriate. Unfortunately, a number of such programs have already been converted to `snap`.

For example ... whether the `snap` developers like it or not, there is lots of legacy software such as `vlc` which is currently used by thousands of people around the world to access files outside of the user's HOME directory parition. For example, on my Ubuntu system, I have mounted a separate `/opt` filesystem upon which media and other files reside. I would have to rebuild my system to create a larger `/home` partition and then move those files somewhere under `/home`, simply to get them to be accessible via `vlc`. And a number of scripts and programs would have to be changed to stop referencing these items via `/opt/...` .

The same problem exists for any other `snap`-based program, not just `vlc`. Another example is `chromium`, which is now solely available as a `snap` under the latest versions of Ubuntu. I can no longer use `chromium` to service URL's such as this one: `file:///opt/path/to/something`, given that `/opt` is separately mounted on my system. Again, I would have to restructure my system, simply to get this `snap`-based `chromium` to work like it used to under earlier versions of Ubuntu.

Given that confinement is an intrinsic part of `snap`, this means that only a small, carefully selected set of programs should be forced to be installed as `snap` packages under Ubuntu. General purpose software like browsers, media players, file viewers, etc. should never be forced to be `snap` software ... or for those pieces of software, both `snap` and non-`snap` versions should be offered as standard Ubuntu packages.

Until or unless there is a way for us users to easily enable `snap` software to access whatever filesystems we choose, I am replacing many `snap`-based modules on my system with non-`snap` counterparts.