GnomeFiles.org, the software repository for applications using the multi-platform toolkit GTK+, is now one year old. During that time 840 applications were posted and 240,000+ file downloads occured. The site now enjoys about 20,000 pageviews daily on average (which was our initial goal). A few more statistics for the curious: 69% of GnomeFiles’ visitors are using Linux and it was a surprise for us that only 1.2% are using a *BSD. Regarding browsers, Firefox dominates with 71% while Gnome’s Epiphany scores a 5% with IE barely at 6%. We would like to thank our loyal GnomeFiles visitors for their support. Please leave a comment if you would like to see a new feature on GnomeFiles.org.
I guess, it’s no wonder, that BSD users have such a low percentage among visitors. If a GTK+ application is good and worth to install, it’s already in the port system. See:
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and http://www.freshports.org/
One only has to cd to /usr/ports/category/packagename, type make install, and it’s there…
You misunderstood. The OS percentage is not about who downloads what, but who visits the site.
Many visitors first visit Gnomefiles, check what’s new, and then they use their OS’ package system to install the new application (they don’t necessarily use gnomefiles’ links to download stuff).
Many Linux distros have an equivelant system like BSD to browse/download packages, so the fact that only 1.2% BSD users visited Gnomefiles it means simply that only 1.2% visited it. The package management BSDs use had nothing to do with it, because you could argue the same for many linux distros, and yet, Linux did manage a 69%.
It just seems that there are not many BSD *just-for-a-desktop* users. BSDs usually attract power users, admins, hard core users. These people don’t necessarily care about a new version of Evince or The Gimp, and so they are less likely to visit Gnomefiles.org than Linux users. So, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t many of BSD users, it just means that the kind of market BSD catters are not necessarily ‘compatible’ with GnomeFiles.
I want to thank osnews for the great site which is very useful for gnome/gtk users.
Thank you!
I can confirm Eugenia’s statement – I am one of those users. I use Ubuntu, so usually i will use GnomeFiles for checking out what’s going on in terms of new projects or updates etc. (for which this is a great site – good job!) and then install the package via apt-get.
Thanks for it.
and many more. thanks for a great resource
Hi,
first many thanks for this great page. Really love it.
But i have a suggestion:
Currently users can vote an application without any limit. I think, it would be better, if every user could only vote one time for an application. Maybe only registered user should be allowed to vote. When saving their vote, they could change it later, but only one vote per application.
And the most important point: When voting an application the user should have to write a comment to explain the vote.
Because sometimes I get very bad votes, without any comment. It would be good, if people had to explain their vote. So if a person votes it very bad the author of the application can see the reason for this. It doesn´t help me, if people simply vote it bad. I have to know, why.
tex
>Currently users can vote an application without any limit.
No, a user can only vote once per any new version. The voting is cookie and IP-locked.
First off, I’d like to thank you for this great site. Something like this was really missing and you provided it, well done.
As far as suggestions go, the only thing that comes to mind is giving a short description about the latest software on the overview page.
To be a little bit more precise.
When one looks at the overview page, there is a list of the latest software on the left. Now the only problem with this list is that there is no description of what the software actually does.
So, thanks again and rock on!
>giving a short description about the latest software on the overview page.
This is already done on its own page so it doesn’t make the rest of the design in the front page look too heavy on text. The “More latest software…” link at the bottom of the listing gets you here: http://www.gnomefiles.org/latest.php
I’d suggest encouraging autopackages and zero installs. Most of the time, the version I am interested in is not packaged yet for my distro (debian unstable though).
Sure there will be problems but they will be worth sorting.
I realise it’s not exactly the gnomefiles.org call but maybe do a category for autopackages and zero-installs available.
>I’d suggest encouraging autopackages and zero installs.
The developers are free to include autopackages if they want to (and any other kind of packaging format). They have three form fields related to file downloading that they can use as they see fit. It’s really up to them…
My point is to make these easier to find, that’s all.
Nice site, but I think the lack of ie isn’t much of a mystery when looking at the purpose of the site
This may sound it has nothing to do with the purpose of existance of gnome-files, but I’d like to see a website where open source application developers would be able to recruit new people, and where people could say something like “Look I’m here and I want to help you OSS geeks. Count me in!”.
We could summarize the implementation like this:
* Registered users could flag themselves as “I want to help”, and check one (or more) fields where they could provide such assistance (marketing, coding, artwork, testing, …).
* Registered applications could flag themselves as “Looking for more volunteers”, and state which type of help would be preferable.
This could be an extra feature, and could probably increase the number of visitors exponencially. Note that I’m not asking for a SourceForge like infrastructure, neither something like Orkut. Just a simple place where we could get in touch to meet people who think boosting free software applications’ general quality, as well as enhacing the community spirit, is a good way of spending time.
I think I pretty much gave away the whole idea, but if any doubts remain, don’t hesitate to send me an email.
Thank you for your time.
I want to think about this some more, but I have to say from intitial reaction after I read your post, that’s a damn good suggestion, to create a labor registry for F/OSS where the community can get together and help each other out with what we’re good at. There’s a lot of people who want to contribute but don’t know how or don’t know who to help.
Oh, I didn´t know, that a user can only vote one time.
But I still think, that a user should have to write a comment to explain a vote. Because voting without the reason does not help the developer of the application.
tex
I like to see how many programs use java, mono, c++, guile, ada, ocaml, haskell, python, perl, ruby, etc.
Also interesting to know the adoption of glade
Thanks gnomefiles.org
I’d just like to do a “me too” post, GnomeFiles is really great!
Why should *BSD-users use gnomefiles? They’ve already got FreshPorts etc.
GnomeFiles is a nice site but I only check it for a screenshot and what’s goin on. I look for software on http://www.freebsd.org/ports. If it’s there it’s mine, if it’s on GnomeFiles it doesn’t mean anything.
Could we have one representative screenshot directly on the application description’s page ? That would look nice.
Thanks
Like stated before, a lot of users look on gnomefiles to discover the newest en greatest software around and the install it with their own system’s package manager. What I would like to see is some way to link directly from the page to the program in the packagemanager. I don’t think it would be very hard to make, perhaps it could be done as a small python app or a firfox extension that places a link on the program page. Then when you click it, it fires up synaptic (or other package manager), in which the program is selected for installation.
about gnomefiles, thanks!
Happy B-Day GnomeFiles. Thanks for such a great web page.
When I use NetBSD I run the Linux binary of Firefox so I can use the plugins (java,flash,etc). Im sure others do to. This might explain some of that.
.adam.
I’m pretty pleased with that site. It gives me a one stop shop for gnome apps with screenshots.
ip and cookie based limit is too little. Anyone with a dial up and many people with a dsl can vote a huge number of times pr release.
The need for a comment is definitely a good thing, at least for heavy votes such as those out of the 5-7 range.
I’d prefer voting just from registered users, but I know this had been seen asa bad thing in the past.
Anyway, happy birthday!
Definitely better than SF as most the apps there seem to be past the infinite pre-alpha stage (SF seems to have apps that haven’t been touched in 3 years, and they should just be removed).
It would be cool if they had a dev hiring method. But I think what would help the most is translators. Translators aren’t necessarily easy to find.
Artists are good too..
Congratulations on a successful year! GnomeFiles.org is a great resource.
A file archive is good, but nowadays Google is my favorite catalog of the whole Internet.
Maybe editorials for GNOMEFiles would help developers choose correct directions to develop really useful utilities for Linux users.
Thanks for the project, however.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!
What about BSD – I really don’t use/need gnomefiles when I’m on BSD – usually I even don’t have X installed there:)
Kde-apps.org just doesn’t cut it.
Browsers percent:
FireFox = 71%
Epiphany = 5%
IE = 6%
Equals 82%
Where’s the 18% left?
I guess, Galeon, Mozilla and any other Gecko browsers. Then Opera, Lynx, Links, Konqueror, Safari and anything else you can think of.
@JD and @freebsd user – you guys are right!
When us BSD (FreeBSD specifically) users have http://www.freshports.org and http://www.freebsd.org/ports, why would we need to go to GnomeFiles.org? If it’s not in the ports, then there’s no point going to GnomeFiles.org. You know what I mean?
For the pkgsrc (NetBSD and others) crowd there is: http://pkgsrc.netbsd.se/
I’m a BSD user, but I don’t go to GnomeFiles.org because I don’t run GNOME. I guess that makes one less BSD user counted on their site.
What would be interesting is to get the percent of konqueror !
Not sure what it would indicate btw…
I agree, finding apps on kde-apps.org is like finding a needle in a haystack, kde-apps.org structure and ui is much worse than gnomefiles.org.
……
was going to be a cool ascii art KUDOS…. killed the spacing… boohhoooo…
well kudos anyway
Well, first off, it’s impressive for a site to last a whole year, that’s a lot of work and y’all @ GnomeFiles should be proud.
That said, I never knew about it before today.
On first glance it looks like a clone of BeBits with a different focus. Not that that’s a bad thing …
I may use GnomeFiles in the future to find certain things, now that I know about it, but for my FreeBSD workstation at work and my server at home, `portupgrade -ra` is typically all I need, with a trip to freshports.org in the event that I actually need to locate a program to perform the required task. I would assume that Gentoo users would have a similar opinion.
But they just lost their founder, so nyah!! 😉
Great Job, Great Site.
I’m sorry but I don’t like compiling 5 different little apps, I wish more authors would us autopackage or whatever..
I use Gnome on FreeBSD, and never check out online repositories with the occasional exception of FreshPorts. Seriously, all I need is to update my ports from CVS, run portupgrade, and the system is up to date. And if something is listed on GnomeFiles.org that isn’t in the ports anyway, why should I care? *That* is why we BSD users don’t bother with the site.
there is the autopackage guy…. blah blah blah autopackage would solve everything, it is so much better, everyone should be using it…. yawn…..
I doesn’t seem like it has been 1 year that I’ve been looking at gnomefiles. It’s an excellent resources, thanks for it!