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 Channel Futures

Open Source


Ubuntu Software Store: Will Your Kids Try It?

  • Written by Joe Panettieri 1
  • August 31, 2009
Apple started the App Store revolution. Canonical hopes to continue it with the Ubuntu Software Store. The Web has been buzzing a few days about the store -- which debuts in Ubuntu 9.10 but may really come together in Ubuntu 10.10. Is there demand for an Ubuntu Software Store? Before you answer, consider my oldest son's current (and future) use of an Apple iTouch, Ubuntu netbook and Ubuntu notebook.

Apple started the App Store revolution. Canonical hopes to continue it with the Ubuntu Software Store. The Web has been buzzing a few days about the store — which debuts in Ubuntu 9.10 but may really come together in Ubuntu 10.10. Is there demand for an Ubuntu Software Store? Before you answer, consider my oldest son’s current (and future) use of an Apple iTouch, Ubuntu netbook and Ubuntu notebook.

According to an official statement about the store:

“The Ubuntu Software Store will be a single graphical interface for package management in Ubuntu. In version 1, it will build on the basic philosophy of Add/Remove Applications and make it even easier to use. In later versions, it will grow to replace Synaptic, gdebi, some parts of the Computer Janitor, and possibly Update Manager. Having a single interface will make handling software easier, socially improve security, hopefully free space on the CD, and provide a prominent showcase for Ubuntu and partner software. The Store is implemented using Python, GTK, and Aptdaemon, and may use PackageKit for some components. Software Store is hosted in Launchpad.”

I could be wrong but I think the Ubuntu Software Store will appeal greatly to Ubuntu newbies who want a simple way to find and easily install top-rated applications.

A case in point: My 10-year-old son is hooked on the App Store for his iPod Touch (iTouch). That same son uses an Ubuntu netbook and another Ubuntu notebook several times a week. I know — for a fact — that he’d spend lots of time in the Ubuntu Software Store if it was intuitive and loaded with lots of user-rated applications.

Likewise, I bet adults will flock to it for business and productivity applications.

First Steps

This article from Phoronix offers a closer look at the Ubuntu Software Store strategy, plus some early screen shots.

Are Canonical and the Ubuntu community doing anything wildly unique with the Ubuntu Software Store? Frankly, I’m not sure. But that may not matter. In the age of consumer software downloads and cloud computing, it seems to me that online app stores are no longer “nice to have” options. Instead, those stores are “must have” requirements.

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Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Cloud Mobility Open Source

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20 comments

  1. Avatar Hmm August 31, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
    Reply

    1. Will it sell proprietary/commercial things, like legal DVD codecs?
    2. What does it do that hasn’t already been done better by something else?

  2. Avatar The VAR Guy August 31, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
    Reply

    Hmmm@1: I don’t have an answer on your first question. But I do think having a centralized system that’s easy to find/access from within Ubuntu will appeal to users.

  3. Avatar Jef Spaleta August 31, 2009 @ 10:24 pm
    Reply

    Hmm:
    The existing Canonical store already has some multimedia plugins for sale from Fluendo. It would be odd if that didn’t roll over into a new interface.

    The VAR Guy:
    It would useful for someone to make a detailed contrast between this effort and similar past efforts that have come before it…like the Click N’ Run effort that Lindows had available as far back as at least 2002. Everything old is new again.

    -jef

  4. Avatar Mel August 31, 2009 @ 10:26 pm
    Reply

    I agree, in this time and age App Stores are a must. I hope Canonical does a good job here.

  5. Avatar budirj August 31, 2009 @ 11:08 pm
    Reply

    it’s a web style, but very nice.
    http://www.allmyapps.com/

  6. Avatar Joe Panettieri August 31, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
    Reply

    VAR Guy@2: Thanks for backing me up. I will check on question 1.
    Jef@3: I must concede I wasn’t familiar with Fluendo and Click N’ Run. I will read up on them.

  7. Avatar Zac September 1, 2009 @ 6:49 am
    Reply

    Software Store, App Store, call it whatever, but a single place where one can, with absolute confidence and trust: install, remove, upgrade, downgrade, any application, package or driver, including commercial software, is a must. After all, the year is 2009. And, this has got to be simple, not the dogs breakfast it is now.

    Making it simple for the end user shouldn’t be the only target. To make it easier for developers to make their software available (to install and remove), including betas versions for testing (vital for open-source software) should be a goal also.

    These can be done, certainly technically they can be. I hope it will be. To get Linux to the masses, this is one of the vital areas that must be targeted.

    I want your average computer user to use Linux over Windows. The above must be done in order to achieve this.

  8. Avatar Abbas September 1, 2009 @ 9:14 am
    Reply

    The thing is that Apple seemingly is raking in glory for introducing the App store, but the truth is that Linux based systems have been doing this for years now with repositories and apt, and if you have actually get into the technical aspect of it, the App store uses apt as well.

    Ubuntu should try and use that leverage to steer customers its own way.

  9. Avatar aikiwolfie September 1, 2009 @ 9:59 am
    Reply

    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.

  10. Avatar Tom September 1, 2009 @ 7:59 pm
    Reply

    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!!

  11. Avatar Martin September 2, 2009 @ 9:52 am
    Reply

    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.

  12. Avatar Alistair Munro September 2, 2009 @ 11:04 am
    Reply

    How will this compare with CNR in Linspire/Freespire?

  13. Avatar bigbrovar September 2, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
    Reply

    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

  14. Avatar aikiwolfie September 2, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
    Reply

    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.

  15. Avatar Jef Spaleta September 3, 2009 @ 1:04 am
    Reply

    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

  16. Avatar Derrick September 7, 2009 @ 1:42 am
    Reply

    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.

  17. Avatar Jef Spaleta September 7, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
    Reply

    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

  18. Avatar Robert September 28, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
    Reply

    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

  19. Avatar Erick May 29, 2010 @ 5:15 pm
    Reply

    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.

  20. Avatar Amir October 22, 2010 @ 6:53 am
    Reply

    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.

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