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Free is too expensive (Economist)Free is too expensive (Economist)Posted Mar 31, 2012 12:42 UTC (Sat) by Cato (subscriber, #7643)In reply to: Free is too expensive (Economist) by anselm Parent article: Free is too expensive (Economist)
A cross-distro app store with a single package format is needed, with some degree of guarantee that apps don't interfere with each other (maybe a sandboxed filesystem tree for the app's own files and settings, with only data files in a shared cross-app tree).
This package format would reference a stable cross-distro ABI version that changes only every 5-10 years.
Once you have this, app developers could target the app store and package format for ABI version N, and then just focus on developing their app's features.
Although Android threw out a lot of other Linux features and mandates Java, it shows that a more extreme version of this can be done. I'm not suggesting Android is the way, just that a Linux based system can be extremely popular with developers with the right approach.
Most Android users have no clue they are even using Linux, and that's exactly how it should be.
An alternative to a cross-distro ABI and app store would be that one distro, probably completely new, adopts this and becomes extremely popular (more like Android than Ubuntu).
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Free is too expensive (Economist) Posted Apr 7, 2012 1:54 UTC (Sat) by khc (subscriber, #45209) [Link]
I wonder if it makes sense to argue about what's needed or not. Clearly, if a wider user base is a goal (and some would certainly argue that's not a goal or top priority), linux hasn't progress much on the desktop. So I fail to see how keep doing the same thing is going to make significant progress.
Some of us believe that an app store like model is needed, and some don't, and it's clear that at this point we can't prove it by arguing about it. What about those who believe that it has a chance group together and try it instead? I mean, it would definitely be a better use of our time than arguing about it on lwn.
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