14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical is making a push to get the ball rolling with Snappy packages, but for that it needs for developers to be able to quickly package their apps with this new format. Enter Snapcraft, which has been updated now to version 0.3.
Snapcraft was announced less than a month ago, and its developers have been very busy. This application has been built in order to help developers build Snappy packages for Ubuntu. It's true that, for now, only the Ubuntu for phones is using this feature, but the team needs to prepare for the obvious next move, which is the integration of Snappy packages on the desktop flavor. For this, they need to have a good tool that will let anyone package apps with great ease.
The Snappy packages used to be called Click in another older incarnation, but they have evolved quite a lot. These will be different from the current .deb files because Ubuntu will be different. Each app will run in its own confined space, similar to what happens of the phone, and theoretically developers will be able to bundle any kind of dependency. This is the feature that's most attractive for future uses and it would put an end to dependency-related issues.
Snapcraft is still work in progress
The development of Snapcraft has just started, so don't expect any miracles just yet. On the other hand, it looks like it's already quite capable, and the Ubuntu developers need people to really test it and see what's capable off.
"It has not been too long since 0.2 was released, and we've undertaken a polishing phase for 0.3, we are happy to announce this release. This release introduces quite a few bug fixes and some nice little things that apply to plugins," wrote developer Sergio Schvezov.
You can install the latest version of Snapcraft from the official PPA if you want to give it a go:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install snapcraft