HaikuDepot Featured Packages overhaul

[Begasus]

One that I would like to see added is ScummVM, maybe TuxPaint too, these have been around since the BeOS days and still in actual development.
For most apps used here: ponpokodiff and cudatext could deserve a place (others are either mentioned already or not in the depot (yet)).

[michel]

@nephele

For me I see this as a “Here is some software we think you will genuinely enjoy (no strings attached)”

So software we expect to:

• Properly work for it’s intended purpose
• Have some recourse where we (as developers) can fix issues (bug tracker, actually useable code base, etc)

I also think that for a longer installation it is perfectly viable to de-install some stuff and later re-install it. Also haiku “flavors” might be a thing, where certain stuff is preinstalled. Or a cutdown image with only minimal stuff.

You make a strong case. Okay, you have convinced me. Pe, WonderBrush and BePDF are going back on the list

[michel]

@TmTFx

But I think that the picks should be based 50% on installations done by the user and the other 50% on random/fixed rotational list as you described, in this way if I am a sound lover I get more “advertisiments” about music apps than other apps that I don’t care.
(this means modify HaikuDepot code)

@nephele

HaikuDepot already allows to not show installed packages, perhaps it could make it clear in the list also what is already installed.

@Starcrasher

I would add something that tells you that there’s another tab with all packages and also that devel and sources packages are available just not shown by default.
Perhaps a window that shows up when you launch HD with check box “Ok, stop reminding me.”
Why not something that shows only on first launch? Because, the first time you often don’t take time to read but mostly because you can install for someone else and that person has to see the message.

All I can say is to write an enhancement request ticket for the HaikuDepot dev, whoever that may be.

[michel]

@Begasus

ScummVM, maybe TuxPaint

Done. BTW, speaking as a non-gamer, wouldn’t RetroArch give you scummvm and a lot more besides?

[michel]

@Starcrasher

NetPulse, WorkspaceNumber, KeymapSwitche

Handy little utilities … maybe you and Nexus-6 could talk about that Haiku-essentials idea?

[SamuraiCrow]

RetroArch is mainly for emulators though it can also be used for game engines.

[nosycat]

WordGrinder. Seriously, +1 for Beezer, NetSurf and Sum-It. I would also vote for Cool Reader and Kristall. There are others, but I don’t want to clutter the list too much.

[michel]

@nosycat

WordGrinder

Don’t tempt me!

@nosycat

I would also vote for Cool Reader and Kristall.

Okay, done. We’re on 30 apps at the moment BTW.

[cafeina]

BePodder is simple and good. I haven’t got any issues with it at all. So that it is my podcast app.

Two developer? tools that I use are CatKeysEditor and Ponkodiff, but the former is a developer or translator centric tool, while the latter is more like a utility to use from time to time, to compare text files changes. Are they worthy to be featured?

[michel]

@cafeina

BePodder is simple and good

The second mention of BePodder. It goes on the list.

@cafeina

CatKeysEditor

A bit too specialized, I think

@cafeina

Ponpokodiff

That’s a tough one. I love this app myself. But the list is getting a bit long now.

[Begasus]

@michel

Done. BTW, speaking as a non-gamer, wouldn’t RetroArch give you scummvm and a lot more besides?

No idea, think I’m about 20 years involved and subscribed in the ScummVM mailing list.

[Cell]

Why not get a big list and go through a harsh elimination process afterward?

[BlueSky]

@michel

Hmm, a pattern emerging here. People really like launchers. What does that tell us about DeskBar?

Probably that Deskbar is quite rudimentary. But since we’ve got a few native utilities to comeplement it I don’t see that as a big problem. Besides that, I think QuickLaunch should be installed by default on a new Haiku installation.

@PulkoMandy

NetSurf

Serious question, not meant to be derogatory. What is the big appeal of NetSurf? Can it do anything better than WebPositive? Just checked the website and saw it only supports HTML 4.01 and no JavaScript.

On the general concept of featured apps: I think we should limit the list to one app per category, to prevent it from getting too cluttered. Might be difficult to reach a consensus on which one to pick, though

[Andrea]

Genius for life, to date it’s the most modern native development tool we have available.

I’ll make a provocation: tunetracker even though it’s outside the centralized system.

[coolcoder613]

Well, it happens to be the second native browser on Haiku, and is one of the least crashy ones. It renders pages decently well, and is good for low memory situations.

[pakyr]

@Andrea

I’ll make a provocation: tunetracker even though it’s outside the centralized system.

This is proprietary and costs lots of money, no? And also, is it even still active? I seem to recall there was a mess about them (temporarily?) shutting down and maybe trying to move to Genode some years back.

[KitsunePrefecture]

@coolcoder613

Well, it happens to be the second native browser on Haiku, and is one of the least crashy ones. It renders pages decently well, and is good for low memory situations.

Yepp, until Minibrowser (the haikuwebkit version ) does not appear in the haiku repo.
I mean I hope it will be added to base install, so it will be available via haiku repo and will be updated altogether with Webpositive.

(Partly OFF TOPIC

I would need to set as the browser, which assigned as offline/online assisting browser wqhich would open one time pages. If it is not possible I would open an enhancement ticket to make it available, to have a category of system - assisting - default browser, besides user default browser, which would used for one time or repeating offline browsing , and one time or repeating online browsing of help pages, thank you you installed our apps and documents of usage ways, et cetera…

Actually my default browser is Webpositive with six tabs always opened --in a strict order , as tabs cannot move in case Webpositive right now – so I want to keep these Haiku/Google services always opened.
However some apps when installed call Webpositive and open its website and then it will be alone in Webpositive.
Also some apps have help page or other documents stored online.
If I forgot to open an another instance of the browser or Webpositive and I do not close this one page instance first or the other one crashes … then … next I can open all tabs again, sometimes log in as well where needed, meanwhile it used to be work as expected : keeping the pages as I like them.
End of PARTLY OFF TOPIC)

[michel]

@Andrea

I’ll make a provocation: tunetracker even though it’s outside the centralized system.

well, someone would have to make an hpkg before I could do that, even if it contains just a script that launched the website.

[KitsunePrefecture]

To ask about or mention something …

Why OpenJDK 8 JRE is the Featured package ?
I always installed that one, as I thought first
→ this is the latest available JRE for Haiku
→ this is recommended as this is the one stable JRE for Haiku x86 (32 bit)
→ the versioning is different - like at IBM provided Java - on Haiku

Well. I am not a developer, so I do not need a full Java SDK, but for browser’s Java support I used install JRE , so I felt curiosity - as on Windows / Linux I always installed more recent versions - I searched with pkgman … and found more higher versionings too. Then I checked OpenJDK site for dates from which such Java packages are available.

Now this is like this >>>--------------> OpenJDK - JDK project releases - above OpenJDK 9 JRE

If
→ there’s a reason behind it,
or
→ it just had not updated when new versions were becoming available for Haiku - it would be acceptable.

Otherwise it should be replaced with newer vesion which available

• 17 (GA 2021/09/14)

for Haiku
Also maybe a more recent version

• 22 (GA 2024/03/19)

would be appreciated, if this Java JDK JRE softwares used by browsers on Haiku for Java support. I am not sure about it.
I just called - years ago -
java --version
in Terminal and I was surprized : it was not available,
I thought browsers might need JRE … but seems nowadays Java support is not central service, but installed with browser packages. I am not sure about it.