Developers can now install multiple versions of the same application on the same system.
Snappy, the package management system called Snaps, has gotten a new and experimental parallel installation feature.
When enabled, this feature will make it very easy to install multiple instances of the same Snap on the same system, each with its own configuration and permission settings.
But that's not all, in addition to having support for installing a parallel instance of the same Snap, and letting users configure themselves independently, this same feature allows developers to change the launch channel of each instance separately.
For example, users can install two VLC instances and then select one to switch to beta channel for testing.
To install a second version of the same Snap you don't have to do anything complicated, following the example you can install the first version of VLC by executing the following code:
Snap Install VLC
And then install the second instance with the following code:
sudo snap install vlc_2
To make it even more interesting you can install another VLC Snap using the same code, although this time it could be from the beta channel:
snap install --beta vlc_3
Minor issues with parallel installation
Since the parallel installation option is still experimental, there are some actions that you should not take, for example, run the snaps at the same time, the software is not designed to be used in this way and problems may arise.
Outside of this, developers already have an easy way to test two Snaps of the same application and change them to their liking, install and uninstall them whenever they want.