The LXC/LXD folks at Canonical are doing great work with adding kernel features for namespaces etc.
I think the "problem" is that Canonical has figured out - correctly - that all their worthwhile stuff needs to be done upstream of Ubuntu. Even their packagers know to try to get things in Debian first and to reduce diffs when they can. Unfortunately, that means that the unique Ubuntu secret sauce is all the weird stuff that no upstream wants, and if you're in no hurry to upgrade, you may as well run Debian.
This is pretty good for the world but I worry about the sustainability of Canonical as a company. I'm worried they'll end up like Mozilla - senior management finally realizes that doing excellent technical work in upstream communities isn't a net positive for their bottom line and has no idea how to remediate that other than layoffs.
I got so excited about LXD ... until I found out it requires snap.
My first "cup of ubuntu" was well over 10 years ago now and I've always wanted to see it succeed. It's repeated squandering of so much potential.
Edit: I was referring to LXD usage on Ubuntu-20.04 and versions going forward (I should have made that clear in the post). Sure, snap isn't technically required since you can "change distros" or "compile it yourself." Those just aren't great options IMHO (and doubly sad since I'm using the distro of the company that makes the product and the better experience is on another distro).
It does not require snap, it is just the default way to install it. You can compile it yourself, or check the repositories of your distro of choice otherwise.
I think Arch has it in their repositories, for example.
Sure, but that does not mean you cannot run LXD on Ubuntu without Snap.
I compile new versions, test it out in staging, and then ship the update to production servers, which is currently a mix of Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE.
Do not get me wrong, I do not like snap (or flatpak for that matter), and would much prefer if LXD was available through a PPA, or the default Ubuntu repositories, but LXD itself does not require snap, it is just the default distribution method.
I think the "problem" is that Canonical has figured out - correctly - that all their worthwhile stuff needs to be done upstream of Ubuntu. Even their packagers know to try to get things in Debian first and to reduce diffs when they can. Unfortunately, that means that the unique Ubuntu secret sauce is all the weird stuff that no upstream wants, and if you're in no hurry to upgrade, you may as well run Debian.
This is pretty good for the world but I worry about the sustainability of Canonical as a company. I'm worried they'll end up like Mozilla - senior management finally realizes that doing excellent technical work in upstream communities isn't a net positive for their bottom line and has no idea how to remediate that other than layoffs.