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While snaps, snapd, etc. are a Canonical provided software, we can't reliably support other operating systems that aren't Ubuntu, even with Canonical-provided software like snapd, etc. For example, if someone is on CentOS, but the snap works fine on Ubuntu and Debian and others, we can't sanely say we're going to be able to support CentOS - this site is Ubuntu centric for support, not "Canonical Services" centric.

There was discussion on this in the Ubuntu Rocket.Chat server where Snap discussions take place, starting around this message (NOTE: This requires registration, or a login.ubuntu.com account, to see messages) where we ultimately came to the same "makes sense" conclusion.

Summary of the below, and moderation team discussions (aka, the "TL;DR"):

Both the moderation team here on Ask Ubuntu, and the Snapcraft.io site team members, are in agreement that it does not make sense to support snaps/snapd questions for non-Ubuntu operating systems here on Ask Ubuntu.

As such, the Snapcraft.io website maintainers are going to be implementing a fix, replacing the "Ask Ubuntu" link with a link to the generic "Community" page on the snapcraft site, with information on that link for Ask Ubuntu indicating that Ask Ubuntu is for Ubuntu-related snap/snapd/etc. support, not non-Ubuntu operating systems, and that IRC and Mailing lists will exist for non-Ubuntu questions/support.

To that end, the following is the 'policy' we are going to be taking with regards to supporting non-Ubuntu snapd support questions:

Questions relating to Snaps, SnapD, etc. that are for operating systems other than Ubuntu and official variants (as dictated in the help center) are offtopic here on Ask Ubuntu.

People who argue this point against the help center's wordings should be pointed to this meta answer.

The long old detailed version:

While snaps, snapd, etc. are a Canonical provided software, we can't reliably support other operating systems that aren't Ubuntu, even with Canonical-provided software like snapd, etc. For example, if someone is on CentOS, but the snap works fine on Ubuntu and Debian and others, we can't sanely say we're going to be able to support CentOS - this site is Ubuntu centric for support, not "Canonical Services" centric.

There was discussion on this in the Ubuntu Rocket.Chat server where Snap discussions take place, starting around this message (NOTE: This requires registration, or a login.ubuntu.com account, to see messages) where we ultimately came to the same "makes sense" conclusion.

We had some discussion on this internally as the mod team, and are pretty much in agreement that what "makes sense" should go, so we've decided to make it such that support questions relating to snaps, snapd, etc. on non-Ubuntu operating systems is considered off-topic on Ask Ubuntu, given my example above as such a 'prime' example of what we couldn't in eons hope to support within the scope of the site.

While this differs from the existing "We support Canonical services" section of what's on topic, this is a case of what "makes sense", when both us and the snapcraft.io teams are in agreement about it, should take precedent. The website change being done on snapcraft.io also will help solve the 'invalid forwarding' thing as well.

###Ask Ubuntu has an overarching policy regarding the operating systems we support: We don't support non-Ubuntu operating systems.

While snaps, snapd, etc. are a Canonical provided software, we can't reliably support other operating systems that aren't Ubuntu, even with Canonical-provided software like snapd, etc. This is just inherent to the site and its scope, and is a higher-importance 'control' for what goes on the site than the fact snapd is a Canonical-supported service/software.

This is in the Help Center as follows:

###What topics can I ask about here?

...

Questions that you should avoid:

• Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Backtrack, Gnome-Remix (prior to 13.04), budgie-remix (16.04 and 16.10) and other Linux distributions (try our friends at Unix & Linux Stack Exchange).
• Bug reports
• Issues with the next version of Ubuntu (Ubuntu+1) (More information about Alpha and Beta release issues).
• Shopping or Hardware Recommendations
• Support for versions for Ubuntu releases past their Support or "End of Life" (EOL) — unless the question is asking how to upgrade to a supported release.

Per this policy, we can't reliably or sanely support snaps, snapd, etc. on non-Ubuntu systems.

To that end, I have filed a request at the Snapcraft website tracker to have either a comment added next to the Ask Ubuntu link about the site being for Ubuntu systems only, or to have the link removed entirely. This is able to be tracked at the GitHub issue filed for this.

It is currently not yet resolved, but I believe it will be able to be handled fairly quickly, since this site is an Ubuntu-centric site, not a "Canonical Software"-centric site.

While snaps, snapd, etc. are a Canonical provided software, we can't reliably support other operating systems that aren't Ubuntu, even with Canonical-provided software like snapd, etc. For example, if someone is on CentOS, but the snap works fine on Ubuntu and Debian and others, we can't sanely say we're going to be able to support CentOS - this site is Ubuntu centric for support, not "Canonical Services" centric.

This might go against the current "What we support" policy, but in the case of "Canonical Services on Other Operating Systems", our only true precedent for this was Windows support of Ubuntu One. Since Ubuntu One is dead, that precedent is mostly obsolete.

The only other 'precedent' for this might be Landscape, but getting it to work on non-Ubuntu environments is "hackish" as it is pretty much Ubuntu only. We also have questions on Launchpad and such, but that's less supported here, in my opinion, and I haven't honestly seen a Launchpad question that's not been closed as something else in a while. (PPA issues excluded).

My statement is this: We should not be supporting SnapD on non-Ubuntu operating systems here on Ask Ubuntu. I brought up sample cases like the above which would cause some confusion/issues with getting support from here.

As such, I had made a PR that was rejected (adding a comment next to the existing link), but from that request/suggestion came a valid alternative proposal from one of the website managers/collaborators:

Hi Thomas, that's a fair point and we shouldn't send non-Ubuntu questions to the Ask Ubuntu community. I'm not fond about how your suggestion looks on the site. Here is my proposal:

This way, on the Community page, we can make clear that Ask Ubuntu is Ubuntu only and other distro users see that they have the IRC and mailing-list options for support.

What do you think? -- @caldav on GitHub

My reply was that this proposal is acceptable. The change is predicted to land next week on the SnapCraft site, but they agree that sending non-Ubuntu snap support questions to the Ask Ubuntu site doesn't make sense.

There was discussion on this in the Ubuntu Rocket.Chat server where Snap discussions take place, starting around this message (NOTE: This requires registration, or a login.ubuntu.com account, to see messages) where we ultimately came to the same "makes sense" conclusion.