LifeHacker and Ubuntu: A Response

just reading through the replies to this. Most of which seemed to focus on the "App Store", as far as I can see the "App Store" seems to me to be a solution in search of a problem. the real problem seems to me to be that all these new users want to install applications the same way you do on Windows. Download and doubleclick. That I think is the real problem that needs a solution.

That's the one thing I don't miss, the app mess that's solved in most Linux distributions and BSD projects. Distro-tuned, repository-delivered, package-managed programs are FOSS' true "killer app." That and all the freeness and the non-crashiness.

Quoting:Distro-tuned, repository-delivered, package-managed programs are FOSS' true "killer app."

The sad thing is that so many don't realize it. They are so used to the "click, download, and run" world of Windows that they don't realize the power of disto repositories and package management. Maybe they've just been the lucky ones and have never run into downloads that won't install (or worse, install but won't run) on the Windows version they are using...or programs that try to install but won't because you don't have dlls x, y, z, and q, or because you don't have msvc pack X, etc. etc. etc....

And then the updates...oh the updates... *shudder*

When I think of all the pain I went through (and still go through for other people and for the labs at work) loading and updating apps in Windows (either downloaded apps or normal boxed apps), and compare that to updating Gentoo/Funtoo (which isn't exactly the easiest distro to manage packages on when you tend to run lots of unstable stuff like I do), I'll take portage any day.

Quoting:They are so used to the "click, download, and run" world of Windows that they don't realize the power of distro repositories and package management.

Or the great willingness of Windows to run whatever badware the user throws at it, whether off teh Intarwebs or on that thumb drive Johnny borrowed from his friend at school.

If the "App Store" is a representation of the package manager in such a way that the Windows to Linux converts see it as something like the Apple App Store (which is just a repackaging of the repository paradigm) then It may just solve the problem of people trying to do the Windows download and install thing. But from what I've read, so far, it looks like another reinventing of the Wheel that happens so often.