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Snaps seem like a great idea in theory, but in my experience in practice they look like something hacked into the desktop.

I have been unable to get them to use my system cursors and when clicking on the indicator the menu looks more like something run with WINE than anything even remotely native. (not sure anymore, but I think they also look out of place in the gtk themes as well)

I have tried two snaps and both are the same: Discord and Libreoffice

While I could deal with the hackey looking menus, the jarring transition of the cursors is too ugly to overcome.

So to my question- Is there any way to make snaps look more native to my desktop?

More possibly pertinent info:

I am running Ubuntu 17.10, but I am using vanilla-gnome-desktop for my DE. I am using the default Adwaita gtk theme. I am using custom cursors installed in my home folder in .icons folder and enabled via gnome-tweak-tool

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  • It is a bug: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/snapd/+bug/1585332
    – Terrance
    Jan 28, 2018 at 22:27
  • Don't flame me but, I was under the impression snaps by their vary nature were like programmers' short-cut dreams. That said I've never used them. Jan 29, 2018 at 1:59
  • @Terrance I was not aware that this was a bug. I hoped that it was more of a settings issue that could be fixed by the user. Thanks of the info
    – TrailRider
    Jan 29, 2018 at 15:49
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix I would not argue with that, but that could be a good thing if they can be made to look nice. How much easier would it be to convince devs to port over to linux if things like snaps and (need to whisper here as it's the competition gasp) flatpaks are available. Is not the biggest complaint that it's too hard to port because of all the linux versions that have to be accommodated for ?
    – TrailRider
    Jan 29, 2018 at 15:59
  • 1
    We'll keep our fingers crossed that with the answer below is correct and that they solve the issue between the snap and the GTK Theming soon. =)
    – Terrance
    Jan 29, 2018 at 17:54

2 Answers 2

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You can monitor this link: Use the system gtk theme and the latest, as of now, is this which has a lot of specific links.

With these latter pieces landing, themes will be unblocked. The very first version of the feature will leverage a single snap containing a number of common themes which can be used as the default-provider in content interfaces in client applications. This is easy to do and will get us good looking applications in the short term.

Later we’ll then introduce improvements that will allow finding and installing snaps providing arbitrary themes that match the local environment needs. We have initial ideas here but the details still need to be designed.

So, work is in progress and the intention to make snaps appear "more integrated" is there.

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Just in case if anybody is interested in this question. You can install vlc with flatpak from flathub repo. Which inherits system-wide styling. Assuming you are on Ubuntu 16.04:

Install flatpak

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak

sudo apt update

sudo apt install flatpak

Install vlc

flatpak install flathub org.videolan.VLC

Run vlc

flatpak run org.videolan.VLC

Links:

Flathub installation guides

Flathub docs

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