Im not sure if this is the appropriate place for feature requests… if its not sorry.
The Mate software boutique could be greatly improved with a search function though.
As it is, I would have to arbitrarily know how an application I might want to find is categorized.
That might be fine for games, or codecs, but other things could easily be more confusing, such as scientific, research, mathematical, plotting, programs that help with automation, etc, the groups aren’t necessarily clear.
I just looked for web-camera software. The software boutique might have something I’m interested in, but I don’t know the category it might be in, and I was unable to find it, by clicking around and scrolling.
Alternatively, imagine a friend says, yeah, I found it in the software boutique under games, its name is fun-game.
even if I know what category something is in, doesn’t mean it will be instantly presented to me.
In Ubuntu Mate 16.04, the software boutique, is the default software interface. I had to install synaptic, to get a good package manager. Maybe mate should just come with synaptic. IDK.
The search function has already been added. It’s available by subscribing to Welcome updates (option in top-right) or by pressing “Retrieve the latest listings” in the Boutique.
It should be noted that the Software Boutique isn’t a full software centre replacement, since it’s a hand picked selection of applications that integrate well, but 16.10 may possibly introduce the ability to search the archives for software that isn’t listed.
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