Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 26th Jan 2011 22:24 UTC, submitted by fran
Installing software on Linux has gotten progressively easier over the years, down to being downright foolproof in Ubuntu's Application Center. However, there is still the problem of each distribution relying on its own frontends and backends, and this needs to be addressed. Members from all the major Linux distributions have held several talks, and have come up with a solution which is already being implemented.
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Member since:2007-09-22
Member since:2009-07-22
Member since:2005-11-13
I dont get it. So if I write an app, I send the tar ball to some server which then builds packages for each distro? How is this different than now? That its automated or what?
Sounds like they're going to try and make it so you submit one tarball that will work on all distros. Having a single platform in which to target is something that is badly needed.
Speaking of tarballs, wonder if they'll allow proprietary apps on this thing? I'm sure Stallman and the rest of his cult will fight hard to keep that from happening, but maybe we can have a 'special' version for them where only open source apps are available.
Anyway, this is long overdue by about 10 years. Assuming they're able to pull this off, the next step will be consolidation of distros, and the same with desktop environments, so that you have a solid, default setup (rather than 900 different ones) that is intuitive to use out of the box, yet powerful enough so you can customize it the way you want. Basically, something like Android on desktops
Do this, and Linux will have progressed to the point where I might actually consider installing it again.
Member since:2009-09-17
I think a big part of it is sharing stuff like rating and reviews or other metadata. Stuff that you really don't need duplicates for and get better when you combine all the data.
That and trying to come up with a standard UI for a linux app store. I think that goal is to make the linux app store experience consistent across supporting distros. So that people get the impression that the linux app ecosystem is just one big happy family instead of several competing fiefdoms of formats, utilities, and standards.
Member since:2009-06-20
As far as I get it, it is only a store; compiling and integration is still up to the distros. This store would just be a standard interface to pilot your local installation of packagekit, while centralizing descriptions, screenshots, latest changelog, user reviews, etc. across all linux distributions.
OpenSUSE's OBS is one step further, and much more complicated.
Edit: it's called Bretzn.
Edited 2011-01-27 13:44 UTC
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Member since:
2006-01-14
I dont get it. So if I write an app, I send the tar ball to some server which then builds packages for each distro? How is this different than now? That its automated or what?