Submitted by In a world where applications are everything, it’s nice to see new ways of obtaining said applications. When they’re free, open source, and quality, that just tops the ice cream with your favorite chocolate or caramel sauce. Allmyapps.com, a fairly new alternative online catalog launched earlier this month providing simple installation of a growing variety of apps on Ubuntu. It was designed with new and unknowledgable users in mind so as to provide an easier way to find and install applications. Allmyapps has been collaborating with Intel to create a new app store for the forthcoming Moblin platform as Moblin had none beforehand, and what they’ve got brewing looks pretty promising. The Moblin app store will be debuted in September.
For me, Moblin is still a ways away from being a usable day-to-day desktop, but each beta gets closer. I’ve tried each release on my Asus 1000HE, and it grows more stable with each release (beta), but so far there are a few bugs that keeep if from being usable – e.g., networking that dies when you suspend and wake up, etc.
However, once someone grabs it and polishes it up (Novell, Dell, HP), it will be a very nice platform. Adding an App Store really makes sense for Mobilin. Installing apps should be done in a Moblin style – graphical, intuitive, newbie friendly, and web-centric. Moblin has a chance to carve out a good niche for Netbooks, but only if it is extremely polished. Netbooks cry out for a different paradigm than the classic Windows look-a-like desktop. One can only hope that OEM’s could be convinced of this. Right now XP Home is the safest bet for OEM’s.
That’s exactly what Moblin needs: Some way to get applications onto it.
i just checked out allmyapps.
i’ve gotta say, from the couple of minutes i just spent browsing, it’s clear that getdeb.net is doing largely the same thing, but a whole lot better. for example, clicking around allmyapps, the individual apps don’t clearly show app versions. you may argue that this is unimportant for ‘average’ users who don’t want or need that info. but, it should still be there, prominently displayed. period.
also, i noticed conflicting screenshots. the page for amarok shows screenshots from both the 1.4 series, as well as the 2 series. upon clicking ‘install’, and then expanding the description, it becomes clear that the install is actually for amarok 2.
ultimately, getdeb.net is a much better choice for typical users who are afraid of synaptic, for whatever ungodly reason.
furthermore, on the front page of allmyapps, there is a portion of the page that shows ‘Recent Activity’. underneat that heading is a list of apps that have been recently installed. to a user without much experience, this may look like an indication that those apps have been installed on his/her machine. it just seems too vague.
bleh. i hate this app-store fad.
the current packagekit and synaptic solution is close enough that it seems redundant and pointless to be going this route. if ‘Add/Remove…” was spruced up a little, it would completely stand head and shoulders above this sort of site.
edited for clarity.
Edited 2009-07-24 05:21 UTC
@niemau I agree with you on the version number. It will be dipsplayed in our next relase. Same thing goes for the screenshots, we are able to differentiate screenshots for Ubuntu 8.04 (with amarok 1.x) from screenshots for Ubuntu 9.04 (with amarok 2.x). This is a bug which will hopefully be fixed in our next release too.
Now for the comparison with getdeb, getdeb and allmyapps pursue very different objectives: Getdeb provides you with new packages (which are not available in the officials repos) while allmyapps wants to make it easier to find and install packages that are provided in the official repositories. Thus, it is a bit difficult to compare the 2 websites.
Concerning the “Recent activity” confusion, you’re the first one to report the problem… You may be right on this one, we’ll see if and how we can improve it.
Finally, concerning your disgust for appstores, it’s a matter of taste. I’m not sure however that this opinion is widely shared… thanks for you feedback anyway!
my comment was hardly a comprehensive list of all of the usability issues on the site.
another example is that the software categories just don’t make sense, and in some cases are redundant. you’ve got a ‘Video’ subcategory under ‘Audio’, as well as an ‘Audio’ subcategory under ‘Video’. These aren’t the only examples. Your categories and subcategories are just in complete disarray. if you’re trying to appeal to average users, then it’s probably best that take the site offline for a while and do some extensive usability testing before making it available again.
the market you’re after is rather fickle, and at the moment, the site is just inadequate. i’m not trying to be mean about it. it’s just failing to serve its purpose. and yes, i realize getdeb and allmyapps aren’t *exactly* the same in regard to motivations. but, you could improve a lot by following their model of categorization and easy access to information about the .debs available on the site. it’s very user-friendly.
Edited 2009-07-24 14:24 UTC