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Ask HN: Why didn't Ubuntu come up with the AppStore?

1 points by igorlev ↗ HN
I'm sure I'm not the only Linux user whose first reaction to the Apple AppStore announcement was: "Commercial APT with ratings!" I've always believed that apt (and siblings) were a major unsung advantage of Linux. A browsable software catalog, remote software deployment, automatic update notifications, dependency resolution, etc. these were all things that are only now being integrated into other major OSes. Hell, even Cydia, the AppStore for jailbroken phones, runs on apt.

So why is it that Ubuntu( or even some other distro) never made that same connection before Apple? Will commercial Linux providers come to their senses and realize the potential here or will we be stuck with horrible attempts like the "Ubuntu Software Center"?

P.S. I'm only using Ubuntu as an example since it has commercial backing for running a centralized repository of verified software, and could be open to including commercial software. And I think including support for commercial software would attract more developers to this venture.

5 comments

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lsc
what is the key difference, for you, between a repository accessible with a tool like aptitude, apt or yum, and the apple appstore? just commercial apps? Because there are other reasons why commercial apps on Linux is a fairly small market.
igorlev
Yeah, I think I should've made it more clear in the post.

Mainly I was thinking commercial app support (ie payment API) and user reviews/ratings. It bothers me that, AFAIK, for the longest time no one had thought of including some sort of user feedback or ratings for software in an apt repository.

I mean of course there are difficulties with getting consistency when you have many distributed repositories, but I don't think it's an insurmountable goal.

I love the fact that I don't really need to hunt through shareware sites for downloading various apps on Linux. But I still find myself going back to Google every time I try to gauge the quality of the app I'm about to download.

lsc
hm. well, for most server-side stuff, you really should be doing a little learning before just installing something. But yeah, for the desktop, that does sound like an interesting idea.
ZeroGravitas
Lindows had this and later on they offered it for Ubuntu. It was called click'n'run.

Looks like it still exists in some form at http://www.cnr.com

j_lagof
I think the main reason is that Linux users are most likely not willing to pay for something like that, while Mac users are used to pay for everything..