I believe that I do not want the desktop version because it has a lot of nice, but unnecessary items installed. This leaves base and server.
I believe that base has less installed than server, I’d like to understand the thought process as to how to decide whether base or server is the wise choice for installed NCPi via snaps. What is the thought process?
With the base version you automatically log in as root and has a huge amount of features cut out. I’m not sure exactly what, I didnt mess around with it for long. You can, I believe, add the features back in. So if the snapd package is missing you might be able to add it and its dependencies back in.
The server version has everything, including a proper log-in, just not the DE and software that comes with the desktop version.
If you want to start without a login, don’t want to be burdened by any extra software whatsoever, and aren’t afraid to run as the root user, try the base version. If you want a regular user account and all the basics like a password and the protection of the sudo mechanism then use server version.
Also, the real beauty of these machines is that, at the low cost of flasing an SD card twice, you can try both, and see what suits your project best. If the base version isn’t doin’ it for ya, 20 mins and bam! You got the server version up and running!