I have read that there will be a choice of “software centre” in 15.10 - Ubuntu Software Centre or AppGrid.
I am dubious about AppGrid - there is remarkably little information about it on its Web site, starting with a complete lack of contact information or version history and continuing with a proprietary licence, whatever that might be (as per its LaunchPad page).
(I am currently using my Chromebook so can’t find out, but is the .deb file downloadable from there a collection of scripts or a binary “blob”? If the second, so much the worse).
Could the AppGrid developer(s) be encouraged to be a bit more forthcoming about what they are doing?
You raise a good point there, since I automatically assumed AppGrid was an open source project, and vaguely remember it being mentioned on OMG Ubuntu!
Looking back at the article, it seems they display a disclaimer describing their ownership on the first run.
The web page offers a .deb file for Ubuntu 14.04+, so that’s not too bad. There’s also a PPA mentioned on the article.
I would agree that the developers should be detailing this on their website, since they don’t provide enough information until it’s installed. We wouldn’t be the only people questioning why it’s closed source (as seen in the comments of the article) and I personally would only use open sourced software to manage vital parts of my system.
If @Wimpy reads this, I have a suggestion to include an option to filter software by license (eg. “Free software only”) – I wouldn’t want to accidentally step into a closed land when I migrated to the open fields.
Like I say, you’ll be able to choose USC or App Grid via Ubuntu MATE Welcome. Yes, App Grid is under a proprietary license but written in Python and the source package can be downloaded with a dget -u -x from the App Grid PPA so you can inspect the code. I have
Have a listen to our discussion on Linux Unplugged last night.
Proprietery or not, appgrid is very nice a slick has most of the software I need and some I didn’t know existed. Software centre is just god dam awful.
Just downloaded it and, ironically, installed it using Ubuntu Software Centre as the default handler for .deb files.
The .deb file is 75KB! It is, indeed, staggeringly fast and digs out all sorts of packages I never knew existed, although it could do with a bit of “MATEfication” (it’s a bit too orange and there is reference to “Ubuntu One” accounts which are, presumably, not very useful now).
Edit: also, for some strange reason, it is caching thumbnails of the applications it displays in ~/Downloads/appgrid (of all places)
I’m not a open source purist but I want to know when a software I might use is NOT open source.
Given a second open source choice I will definitly prefer the open choice. And I might contibute to improve an open source project. It will be a critical information to orient my choice.
I strongly believe that the only way to improve software and produce the best code is going thru open source.
Coding is a science. And for science to improve, it must be shared. We’d be still using copyright stone wheel pulled by horses otherwise…
