I thought in 12.2 Opensuse was going to release an app store market approach to installing applications?
Doing this will greatly increase marketing, not only Opensuse but linux use in general.
Use this to report new features :
https://features.opensuse.org/
Steam will increase marketing of linux much greater IMHO and they are already beta testing 
Steam Internal Beta Next Week, External Beta To Follow
I agree, an app store would be huge. There really is no argument against it at this point seeing how things have turned out for the apple and android app store and user base.
Implementing such a thing would be a major undertaking though and I just do not see the resources for it in the openSUSE community. What we really need to do is have all the distros partner together for a universal app store. This would promote linux and what ever distro you want, good for everybody.
It’s really not a bad idea. I would say that the software.opensuse.org pages are much like it but are not really… new user friendly… There also is the lack of the advertising of new apps portion of it as well. The other question would be, how do you make money on something that you can install for free. I suppose advertising space, similar to what Facebook does, would probably be the best route. Pull in enough traffic, making it super user friendly and easy to use would be a good way to at least start it off.
Just as long as we don’t fall down the traps of the Ubuntu Software Center. If we can make a compromise between a package manager and the app store (e.g including all the libraries and dependencies in a separate category) then we can go a long way into providing a good experience for noobies and geeks alike. We also ought to incorporate some of the features that are presently only available on the site, such as the more up-to-date packages we’ve got. Any branding or GUIs should be listed as sub-packages for one main group (e.g qjackctl for JACK) to make things less confusing.
Anything that can make the user experience less fragmented and vague gets my seal of approval.
Yerah this is something I feel openSUSE is missing.
For as bad as Ubuntu software center is it does its job of making a clear easy to use interface that both the pro and newcomer can use.
And sure there is YAST but I dont think its as accessible to new users as it could be.
I would rather like to see some improvements / new features added to the software.opensuse.org page rather than a software-center.
I think having categories added to the page would be useful. For example tabs could be added, which could like - Popular Applications, Music/Video Players, Office applications, Photo/Video Editing.
I think this would make it easier for new and existing users to discover new and alternative programs, in the opensuse repos and on the OBS.
Plus I also dont like the way the page uses debian/ubuntu screenshots rather than opensuse screenshots.
Well it does make sense as ubuntu and debian are more popular then openSUSE overall.
As for software on site eh that can go both ways as we do have the one click install method.
One can’t remove a package using the website though. There should be a polished and ‘welcoming’ way of doing both.
You mean on software.opensuse.org?
That’s just a search engine for all packages on OBS. Why should anybody be able to remove a package there?
Package Maintainers (or others with sufficient rights) can remove their packages on build.opensuse.org or with osc (the command line OBS client).
Maybe it can be sort of like Ubuntu software center/ Mint software center though not nearly as limited.
On 2013-07-02 16:56, MadmanRB wrote:
>
> Maybe it can be sort of like Ubuntu software center/ Mint software
> center though not nearly as limited.
What’s the advantage?
Please describe it for people that have never used Ubuntu.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Sure
Ubuntu software center is a very basic package managment tool and looks like this:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/LiNBA.png
As you can see its very basic, but thats because its meant to be.
It features large icons, prices (where applicable) and the application name on its main page and when you click on an app it will tell you what its about.
Now this is both a good and a bad software installer, for basic package management it actually works quite well.
But if you add stuff like extra repos and the like it becomes cumbersome forcing one to often resort to command line.
It needs a refresh button but will Ubuntu have one?
Nope you want more complex use the terminal.
This is where the mint software center gets its cudos:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Mint_software_manager.png
While lacking the same flash as its counterpart the current mint software center in mint 15 offers many features that Ubuntu software center doesnt like the ability to refresh.
Now you may say it looks like apper, but apper doesnt have as many features.
Now of course there is Yast, keep it around for more experienced users but also have a more accessible UI for new users.
To be honest I never really found Yasts software manager that good for beginners, now I can get it but if you never used lin ux before it really lacks simplicity.
On 2013-07-02 22:46, MadmanRB wrote:
>
> Sure
>
> Ubuntu software center is a very basic package managment tool and looks
> like this:
>
> [image: http://i.stack.imgur.com/LiNBA.png]
I can see it is more attractive. Maybe it is easier to find an
application for solving a task. YaST is more technical – and no, I do
not find yast difficult at all. Not even back in 1998 did I find it
difficult.
To get something of that kind, somebody has to design it, and then
somebody else has to assign resources to maintain it. I don’t see it
happening. Not soon. And asking for it here leads nowhere, the decision
makers do not read this forum.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Yeah, but my point is we shouldn’t have to remove features to make it easier for beginners. Having separate applications seems like an after-thought to me, and by combining the YAST Software Manager toolset and say, the aesthetics and layout of the ‘software center’ type app, we can remove fragmentation and make life easier for developers and package managers.
Speaking of easy to use package management software, when I first saw Apper in openSUSE I thought that was the beginner friendly side of the openSUSE distribution (like Synaptic and old Ubuntu Software Center in the old days). Software categories, nice icons… I tend to use YaST for administration and tell beginners to use Apper.
Even if Apper (formerly known as “KPackageKit”) is, for the moment, far from being as user friendly as Ubuntu Software Center, I prefer Apper because it’s a cross distribution solution and this is what I like in open source community: share of work :). What a waste of time and energy to start all over again!
I think the huge advantage of Ubuntu Software Center over Apper is that you can buy software within. People may be interested by that or take it for granted. I personally prefer to manage the software I buy my-self…
Anyway, as robin_listas pointed out, “the decision makers do not read this forum”. But I couldn’t refrain my from replying!
On 07/04/2013 02:16 PM, Paspie wrote:
> we can remove fragmentation and make life easier for developers and
> package managers.
do you (and the others here who propose and endorse the idea of an
app store even better than Ubuntu and whose?) include yourself in
that “we” who will volunteer their time and talent to do the actual
work required to build, populate and maintain the app store?
of course maintaining would be a near constant task of removal of
outdated packages, and the inclusion of their replacements and and
incorporation of the new latest and greatest gizmos, do-dads and
what-nots…
and, normally there is also a relatively constant influx of new ideas
and needs to be incorporated into existing things like YaST,
zypper, the searcher at software.opensuse.org or even a new app
store…all to make it easier for users . . .
–
dd
On 07/04/2013 03:06 PM, kalten wrote:
> What a waste of time and
> energy to start all over again!
i agree!
i wonder though, since YaST is very old (from the '90s i believe) why
did all of those people who wanted to make apper “waste their time
and energy” by starting all over again to make something that does
what YaST Software Management, YaST Online Update and zypper did
better, already years before either kpackagekit or apper started up
to replicate existing capability…but introduce instability,
inconsistencies, bugs and turmoil?
–
dd
To provide cross-distro package management software i.e. PackageKit. Apper was produced for KDE. Neither PackageKit nor Apper were produced for [open]SUSE.
Touché!
I think that packagekit and its GUIs were born because it’s difficult to use one software manager from one distribution to another. Speaking of YaST, the project aiming at porting it into Debian, yast4debian, halted.
EDIT: consused was faster!