Comments on: Ubuntu Software Store: Will Your Kids Try It?

By: Amir

Amir — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:53:59 +0000

We know teachers and parents want to provide their children with the very best preparation for learning.
So how do you give your child a head start? I came across a site, Softwareforkids.com is a destination for software that
are important for kid’s educational needs.

By: Erick

Erick — Sat, 29 May 2010 20:15:23 +0000

You have lots of errors even in the first paragraph:
1) It is Ubuntu Software Center, not Store.
2) It will be polished by Ubuntu 10.04, not 10.10.
3) There is no such thing as an iTouch, it is called iPod Touch.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:25:20 +0000

Jef,
coming from a user side the resounding answer is ABSOLUTELY. i like free opensource, but in reality i want something that works. if the store allows competition between opensource and paid for software than good. if this allows me to easily install software, and allow paid for software companies a simple, easy, standard instalation method that brings in more developers than linux wins. right now if i install something i dont nessesarily know where its at. if i save a document, it may go where i can find it. god forbit i have to go looking in every file system for it. i am good enough in linux to do basic functions get google sketchup and spore to work under wine, this has taken some time to get myself to this level. the typical user doesnt want to do this much work, and they want whatever program works regardless if they have to pay for it. and if there is more competition so be it it benifits us

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:18:30 +0000

Derrick:
Are you suggesting that enough Ubuntu users would be willing to pay for software to justify the expense of managing a centralized Ubuntu software storefront that handled monetary transactions of for-pay applications? I’m not sure the same consumer demand for small dollar applications exists in the Ubuntu userbase as it does for Apple’s userbase. I think there is very different consumer culture in Ubuntu which would work against the sustainability of a for-pay application storefront and would ultimately cause it to be a money-loser for anyone trying to put the manpower behind it.

-jef

By: Derrick

Derrick — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:42:10 +0000

I’m all for FOSS software, but I strongly believe there is a huge need for an OS to provide a solid, safe, reliable way for developers to get their products to the masses.

The Apple App Store is actually unspeakably awful – at least for iPhones and iPods themselves. Usability? Awful. The current ranking systems are largely broken and make it very difficult for good apps to shine and bad ones to be suffled away. Don’t even get me started on Apple’s approval processes.

However, Apple HAS made it damn easy for developers to make and distribute their software, and people to buy it safely.

See, currently there is a significant problem in the shareware world. That is, quite simply, payment methods. There are a million online methods of payment, and it can be very difficult to support (as a buyer or seller) the right ones, and in the case of the more popular ones like paypal the fees can get really unpleasant.

A centralized app store would be able to implement an iTunes-like payment model, so users would be able to register their software simply, easily, and securely, without risk of being led to a fake payment processor.

Without providing a way to safely and securely distribute non-free software, Ubuntu would be severely handicapped in the desktop OS world of tomorrow.

Make no mistake, it’ll come for Windows too. Maybe not in 7, but it’ll come.

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:04:05 +0000

aikiwolfie:

what’s also interesting is that the softwarestore app is using a newly created aptdeamon codebase..which mimics the design of packagekit…all for the sake of making it possible for the packaging process to block and wait for user interaction.

http://www.packagekit.org/pk-faq.html#user-interaction

Is the duplication of effort warranted? I don’t know. But I do find it ironic… considering all the trouble Canonical employees went through to remove user interactions from desktop notifications…now they are duplicating packagekit in order to add user interaction back in. Irony.

Kubuntu has already switched to using packagekit by default are they going to be persuaded to move to aptdaemon instead in order to get access to softwarestore?

-jef

By: aikiwolfie

aikiwolfie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:49:02 +0000

In comparison to CNR, it might actually get somewhere. It won’t depend on a web site. It’ll be integrated into the OS as much as Add/Remove, apt-get or Synaptic.

On the point about Synaptic. I think it would be a mistake to ditch Synaptic completely. I don’t see anything in the AppStore yet that brings all of Synaptics features. Which are needed.

“Applications” are made up of “many packages” containing many files. Synaptic gives us the power to deal with individual packages. Useful when trouble shooting or customising a system.

By: bigbrovar

bigbrovar — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:31:21 +0000

I think the apt-center thingie is a great idea. unifying synaptic, add and remove and update manager would make it even easier to install and manage updates. my only concern is that as always it seems this is an ubuntu/gnome initiative and no one seem to be talking how this would also integrate well with kubuntu/kde

By: Alistair Munro

Alistair Munro — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:04:34 +0000

How will this compare with CNR in Linspire/Freespire?

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:52:01 +0000

Although I agree with Jef that “old is new again” it’s usually Apple who gets it right first. I find APT technologically superior to any other similar tech, but for the end user/consumer it could be still confusing at times. So yes, Software Store, although late in the game, has a lot of potential to excel in this aspect of operating systems. Automatic mass downloading installing and updating of the apps would probably never get done in Windows or OS X the way is done in Linux distros.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:59:08 +0000

I’m all for a single location to install/remove software.
But one thing threw me off in this article, no one calls the iPod Touch iThouch!!

By: aikiwolfie

aikiwolfie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:59:47 +0000

For the already initiated Ubuntu users there is little need for this AppStore unless Canonical are going to use it to host paid for applications.

One of the problems Canonical sighted about the Add/Remove menu option was it’s visibility to users or lack of. However Canonical to my mind haven’t addressed how the AppStore will make the Add/Remove function more visible.

Presumably the whole centralised software store come management system will still be accessed through a menu option or icon on the menu bar?

Another issue I can see on the horizon are the free software zealots. And I’m using free as in “we don’t need to pay for all the hard work that went into building Ubuntu” people that troll Ubuntu Forums.

These individuals have already expressed their dislike of the use of the word “store”. The very idea of actually paying for something seems to bring them out in hives.

However sometimes paying cash up front is good for software developers. They need to eat and companies like IBM and Intel aren’t paying the likes of 2D Boy to push out games like The World Of Goo! Such an awesome game. Well worth the £8 I paid for it.

I think I’m right in saying Microsoft have a similar concept planned for Windows 7. Can Linux really afford to be left behind? I don’t think it can.