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GitHub Should Start an App Store

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Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#191

Post by zests »

MayeulC wrote: post #53
zests wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A walled garden is a plus for most consumers. Especially non-technical consumers who want to download something and be sure it's not spyware that will brick their phone. If you want to be able to install anything you can buy a pinephone but I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. Apple offers a walled garden as an offering to i-device users. Other companies try to mimic Apple's success. Mo…

> I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. It's actually fun to do "apk add audacity" (yeah, there's also multiple gui frontends...) and have it installed and working as well as on desktop. OK, that one uses a traditional desktop interface, but it is still usable. Plug it into a docking station and use a mouse and keyboard + screen if you prefer. Okay, that's not really sideloading, especia…

If you take off the linux hobbyist blinders you will see that having to type in "apk add audacity" and getting a mobile unusable interface is a non-starter for 99% of people. Compare that to the experience of typing in to a search bar that loads suggestions and gives results with pictures and ratings and descriptions.

I like the pinephone and am going to buy one myself but I'm buying it because of linux reasons, not because I actually think it will be a good daily driver.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#192

Post by birdyrooster »

villasv wrote: post #32

> They already host source code of millions of apps. Release integration should be trivial to implement. Release integration is trivial for anyone. It's the easiest and most irrelevant part of the app stores. > Unlike Google they actually listen to their users. They were awesome during youtube-dl debacle. And controversial on others, like shutting down Popcorn Time's repository. As any other, they'll listen if there'…

Microsoft tripped over themselves scrambling to make advertising revenue as fast as possible and stymied the development of their operating system to do so. They have turned the user of Windows into the product. They are pulling a Facebook/Google and the author has the audacity to say they trust Microsoft more than Apple? Give me a break.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#193

Post by MereInterest »

dane-pgp wrote: post #82
pavlov wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American right has spent the past 35 years inventing scary new names for the same nebulous concept of a Marxist horde threatening to prevent them from speaking honestly. It’s been known as “political correctness”, “social justice warriors”, “wokeness” and certainly a bunch of other names. The fundamental premise doesn’t change because it’s rooted in some deeper fear.

Do you think that no one has ever unironically used "politically correct", "social justice warrior", or "woke" to describe themselves or their opinions? I'm not saying that the response to it isn't rooted in some deeper fear, but that doesn't mean that the phenomenon they are afraid of doesn't exist.

My first exposure to the term "social justice" was several years ago, when a family member began working with local jails and businesses, personally visiting and establishing relationships with inmates, and working to help reduce recidivism by arranging jobs for former inmates. I have never heard the addendum "warrior" added as a self-description, and have only ever heard it applied as a term of mockery from the right.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#194

Post by forbiddenvoid »

Or we could just stop using app stores.

Honestly, I've yet to find an argument for the existence of an app store that holds water. Let people install what they want. Provide reasonable paths to update and upgrade and cut out the middle layer.

The layer of control that Google and Apple exert over people is anti-competitive. But the answer isn't competing app stores. I don't need someone to tell me what I can or can't install on the operating system on my device.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#195

Post by webmobdev »

john_alan wrote: post #138
treis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also ignores the question of how: Apple - Blocked Android - Pointless without a drop in replacement for Google Services. Windows- This is possible, but Windows doesn't really have a distribution problem. There's no real need here. Linux - Again possible, but no real need

Why would "Apple" be blocked? You can run arbitrary software on macOS.

Not on ios. And soon that will also change on macOS.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#196

Post by Phemist »

MereInterest wrote: post #189
Phemist wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have developed a rekindled hatred for M$ in the past few weeks trying to install firefox on a fresh installation of windows 10. I counted 5 seperate scare tactics employed by M$ to keep you using Edge. I thought they were successfully sued for monopolistically coupling Internet Explorer to Windows and had a flow in their installation menu's for installing competing browsers. I was surprised that this is now totally…

Don't forget about the shady and underhanded ways to prevent you from making a local account for a new installation of Windows. The first screen you see asks for a WiFi password, and I assume that it is going to start downloading updates in the background. Instead, it prompts you to enter an email address for a Microsoft account. The "Learn More" button says that you can make an offline account later, but right now t…

Oh yes! I am just glad I knew about this behaviour beforehand and didn't let the laptop connect to my WiFi. My dad would've fallen into this trap _for sure_.

Windows 10 installation has become a maze which only the really savvy can escape with their privacy somewhat in tact.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#197

Post by chrisco255 »

Phemist wrote: post #155
syshum wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really is a generational divide, those of US that were around for the 90's and early 00's Microsoft crap still have a bad taste for the "new Microsoft" that claims to love FLOSS (while still showing many signs of EEE.. ) During that time Google was very friendly to FLOSS, and open protocols (remember when GChat was just a XMPP client) Today MS and Google seems to have flipped, Google now is fully embracing Embra…

I have developed a rekindled hatred for M$ in the past few weeks trying to install firefox on a fresh installation of windows 10. I counted 5 seperate scare tactics employed by M$ to keep you using Edge. I thought they were successfully sued for monopolistically coupling Internet Explorer to Windows and had a flow in their installation menu's for installing competing browsers. I was surprised that this is now totally…

That's terrible and all, but you can't even really install a different browser on your phone. They're either Safari wrappers or Chrome wrappers (even Firefox).

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#198

Post by mulmen »

klyrs wrote: post #144
syshum wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really is a generational divide, those of US that were around for the 90's and early 00's Microsoft crap still have a bad taste for the "new Microsoft" that claims to love FLOSS (while still showing many signs of EEE.. ) During that time Google was very friendly to FLOSS, and open protocols (remember when GChat was just a XMPP client) Today MS and Google seems to have flipped, Google now is fully embracing Embra…

Yeah, I was there. I have a long view and cynicism that m$ has retreated to the Embrace phase. To vastly oversimplify their governance, they're a new CEO away from Extend and Extinguish. Lately, I love what they've been doing. Even github -- there have been disappointments, for sure, but nothing like the egregious misbehavior in the bad old days. But given their history; given Google's "do no evil" bait&switch... I d…

> It'd be cool if an interested third party could build out an app store that automatically sources from github (and its competitors), though.

That’s called a package repository and there are hundreds (thousands?) of them.

An “App Store” is a vertically integrated package repo.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#199

Post by ironmagma »

simias wrote: post #70
villasv wrote: post #32

> They already host source code of millions of apps. Release integration should be trivial to implement. Release integration is trivial for anyone. It's the easiest and most irrelevant part of the app stores. > Unlike Google they actually listen to their users. They were awesome during youtube-dl debacle. And controversial on others, like shutting down Popcorn Time's repository. As any other, they'll listen if there'…

>This is situational and opportunistic. It can change any day. In fact, managing an important app store is exactly one way to re-(un)-balance this relationship. I agree. Sorting huge, multinational, publicly traded companies in friends and enemies list is so obviously bogus and immature that it baffles me that this is so prevalent. Microsoft is not your enemy. It's not your friend (unless you're one of the shareholde…

Business is amoral; the system is amoral. But every player in the system must choose for every action whether to do that action or not. The actions they choose will either conform to the morals or they will not, so in the end just like the individual people that comprise them, companies are (mostly) either good or bad. There’s nothing that says a company, even a publicly-traded one, must not exist for anything but profit.

Re: GitHub Should Start an App Store

#200

Post by coconut08 »

forbiddenvoid wrote: post #194

Or we could just stop using app stores. Honestly, I've yet to find an argument for the existence of an app store that holds water. Let people install what they want. Provide reasonable paths to update and upgrade and cut out the middle layer. The layer of control that Google and Apple exert over people is anti-competitive. But the answer isn't competing app stores. I don't need someone to tell me what I can or can't…

all you need to do is look at the windows ecosystem vs the linux one to realize how important a software hub is. windows is a place where people download random one off pieces of software that may or may not be safe, will likely never be updated, and will sit and rot on your computer until the end of time, and are entirely unvetted whereas linux maintains all of your software for you, keeps it frequently up to date, manages dependencies and does at least SOME level of vetting. there definitely are problems with current implementations of app stores in phones, but the idea in general has been a huge boon for security and maintainability. if you think that android would be better off without google play you are insane. people would be running insecure nonsense that would be doing stuff like stealing their bank information and all sorts of stuff.

if your problem is the fact that apple restricts people's ability to run software that they haven't explicitly allowed, then I agree, that is a problem. that isn't a problem on google as you can install any apk you want.

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