snap vs apt install (here for eclipse)

Question

When calling eclipse in terminal I am told to do one of

sudo snap install eclipse         
sudo apt  install eclipse-platform

However snap search eclipse gives only

Name       Version  Developer     Notes    Summary
eclipse    4.7.3a   snapcrafters  classic  Extensible Tool Platform and Java IDE
mosquitto  1.5      ralight       -        Eclipse Mosquitto MQTT broker

whereas apt search eclipse gives a huge list of eclipse related packages. Does this mean that if I want to have e.g. "Python IDE for Eclipse" I have to go for the apt variant?

Solution

Let's compare version numbers.

1. Official Ubuntu repository has eclipse package with 3.8.1 version.
2. Snap - Eclipse 4.7.3a (as you have already discovered, should be installed with snap install eclipse --classic)

3. Ubuntu Make has 4.7.3a:

   sudo apt-get install ubuntu-make
   umake ide eclipse
   

Snap version has access to removable media because of --classic confinement:

This revision of snap "eclipse" was published using classic confinement and thus may perform arbitrary system changes outside of the security sandbox that snaps are usually confined to, which may put your system at risk.

But I recommend version from Ubuntu Make. It is more straightforward.

Comments

[muclux]

So that would mean for python development "ubuntu make" and "pycharm" instead of "eclipse" and "pydev". Right?

[N0rbert]

Right, or eclipse-pydev 3.9.2 from APT-repository. I have never used Eclipse for Python development. I tried Spyder3, it works great.

[Aryo Adhi]

Clarification: doesn't classic confinement means it acts like usual .deb package, which has access to system?

[undsoft]

The Eclipse snap is indeed classic confined, so has access to the entire system, including external USB or other mounted filesystems.

[N0rbert]

@popey in the Eclipse case you are right. Because of --classic nature it works as expected. Thank you!

[Shadi]

TIL Ubuntu Make