I think something like an ‘appstone’ would be great.
Why not create a simple, easy to use, Scripting language
wich has full accses to the haiku API and the Computer.Or
you use the executable format from haiku and download a simple program
wich will run faster than a app.Or a packet , wich contains a script or
program and files wich are needet.
I couldt work like this :
The user enter the ‘store’ and search a application.
He looks a da description and rate of the app finaly
by a simple click he starts it out of the store.
The Appstore-program or even a browser download and starts
the script / program / package and runs it.
Such an appstore will make the use of haiku much easyer i think, because
the user finds a lot of programs and information about the program
in a central point.He can easy check for updates or the store tells the user
about an update or automatic updates an app.The store also can manage
apps and programs already downloaded, so you just have to download an app
and the use it offline.
Sorry about my bad english, i try to become better, but it is
hard for me.I hope you understand wath im try to explan you above
Well, before you can have an appstore you have to have apps. And that is a problem right now. All the real geeks who could be writing serious apps for Haiku are hacking away at the OS itself. This is a very small community. Meanwhile, at Haikuware we are seeing a trickle of ported games and little utilities written in yab. Nothing wrong with that, in fact some of the latter are mine, but we are not seeing the heavy-duty productivity and media apps we need to make Haiku a full-time OS.
Maybe the devs should call a 1-year moratorium on OS development once R1 is out to concentrate on dusting off their old BeOS apps and updating them for Haiku … Once the apps are there, someone will surely write a front-end for their distribution.
you right, but if we have such a ‘store’ haiku
could become more atractive for user and programer
so if they hear from this function they could join
the project. Or maybe create the same store for windows
and let the script run on all the OS wich support the ‘store’.
first we need a working package manager, which has been started by Oliver and Ingo, but isn’t complete yet. It’s a requirement for R1, so there’s hope we’ll see that rather sooner than later. After that we’ll see what software sites appear and how they’ll work.
While I like the shop-for-everything-in-one-place idea, that doesn’t mean the Haiku software world has to fracture when there are a few different sites opening up. I’d hope for a few “official” package repositories distributed on several servers. The software sites are then just front-ends to those repositories, offering extras like in-depth tests, tips and tricks, help, sample files, commentary/community forums etc.
For people that don’t like the shop idea or the shops’ current offerings, there could be a more minimalistic front-end in the package manager’s download section that offers lists of available packages.
But first things first… i.e. package management.
Regards,
Humdinger
I don’t know how “all that” worked in BeOS but it was good and it worked. IIRC there was no package management, dependancy-resolving, official and unofficial packages etc. You would download, unpack and it would work and it was good like that. I do not understand why are You re-creating LINUX. I like linux, I use TinyCore and L/Ubuntu daily. But I liked BeOS better, that’s why I hang around Haiku-os.org. I think Gassee was a sort of genius, a visionary, but that’s my opinion. I have tried tens of linux distros and hundreds of versions of them and all fall short of BeOS.
What’s wrong with having an “official repository” for software? It shuts out lot of software. In linux-universe there are tons of projects that don’t get enough userbase and even die out because they are not in repositories or there is an ancient version there. If You look at the forums You see that most users don’t even realize that there is software outside of what they find in the official repositories. [Some of the most amazing apps for Iphone (1st Gen in my case) can’t be found in the Apple’s official store - for example I could and can record live max-resolution video with app called Cycorder, yet officially it should not be possible and the best paid app could do it with less then half the resolution and frame rate.] And although I know there are tons of apps outside official repositories for my linux-distro I notice time after time that I tend to ignore them because the official repositories are big and available so I seldom wander off to find something from the wild. And that’s a damn shame.
Because… repositories are the future if you want to install software on Windows especially free software you IMMEDIATELY wish there was a package manager to help grab all the needed libraries.
I would say the reason why they aren’t doing it quite the way BeOS did it is that way had problems… there was no sane upgrade path BeOS was all about cutting the old stuff out and building new however it lacked any method of doing anything about cruft onces it was released you just had to deal with it’s problems … I think the package manager will help alot in that respect.
And as far as concerns about software running as long as release cycles are quite long it will be good very similar to what happens with windows and I think that is acceptable as long as haiku remains a lightweight OS.
All that said real Haiku software should only use libraries installed in the base… and if it needs something else it should be built into the next update of the base system… that for the most part is how BeOS did it and any oddball libraries were just bundled with the software.
@goldencut: I understand what you mean and I feel the same way. There is something elegant about an app that is all contained in a single file. But by the end of the BeOS era, things had changed already. Apps were no longer a single file that you could put anywhere you liked. Most of the major apps were already requiring liblayout.so and came with a symlink called “drag liblayout.so here”. You could easily end up with five or six copies of liblayout scattered over your system. And liblayout was just one library that various apps needed.
As I understand it (open to correction here), the package manager they are working on will be primarily for “official” Haiku apps. The base system, as it were. How a 3rd-party developer can get his stuff in there is unclear at the moment. I doubt there will be any restriction on building and distributing apps the old-fashioned way, but your installation script or even the app itself could say “Hey, package manager, make sure the latest version of liblayout is installed before we go any further.”
And someone could write an appstore for non-official apps, in fact streakX did have an early attempt up on Haikuware IIRC. This could work alongside the package manager.
On Mac OSX, for example, you add software like this:
Apple Software Update: Keeps your base system up to date (the “package manager”)
Mac App Store: Semi-official apps, some by Apple, most not. Updating built in to the store.
The last two categories vary in how they auto-update, some just expect you to check the website from time to time, some use a mailing list, and quite a few use the Sprinkle framework to notify the user when an update is available.
I think that an App store is a brilliant idea. Honestly I don’t know how feasible it is with the stage of software/app development which Haiku currently sees. I think that if enough developers and users agreed to work towards an app store with a continually growing amount of software that it should be a go. Ubuntu recently saw more development with its App store and it is opened up a whole new branch of development for Linux. Honestly more Apps mean more users. Sites like Haikuware are very simple and barely meet market demands as far as a usable trustworthy OS. I know multiple times I’ve looked for a recent Firefox builds for Haiku because the Mozilla does not provide the install files and I had to fight a little with Haikuware. And App store would provide users with up-to-date, free, and easy-to-install software. App stores are a service that is expected now as the public uses them on smart phones, the soon to come Windows 8, and the already established operating systems Ubuntu, and Mac OS X.
I think it’s no need to auto up-to-date. Somebody use Winamp 2.x with no problems today.
But why not to make a torrent tracker with DRM function (for some evil a.k.a. money)? Torrent will make faster downloads, DRM - sales, DRM optionality - popularity due to both kinds of projects: commercial and open source.
If Haiku can have to install a new software - it’s time to make a store for it.
Secondly, you have found the spirit and competition analysis of what is out there and feels like you might need to do something. If you think separates how to start a mobile app business you from the rest of the USP (unique selling proposition) to get out of the gate.
