The Snap Store and Flathub are two universal app stores for Linux. They are very different from how traditional software distribution works. As is always the case with new software, the question “why do we need this?” often arises. “Including software in distribution repositories has worked for so long, so why do we need to change it?”

Snaps and Flatpaks are often compared to each other because they both make it super easy for Linux users to get the latest versions of desktop applications. If a Linux user wants to install the latest version of apps like Slack, Krita or Blender, either tool will work just fine. There is one fundamental difference between Snaps and Flatpaks, however. While both are systems for distributing Linux apps, snap is also a tool to build Linux Distributions.