Featured Applications for Software Center

Registered by Rick Spencer

Criteria for apps to go into software center, as well a place for folks to nominate apps.

This blueprint refers to the applications will go into the new "Featured" category for the software-center.

The blueprint itself is for discussing the criteria under which applications will be accepted into the featured category, and the linked spec is a container for proposed applications.

Blueprint information

Status:
Complete
Approver:
Martin Pitt
Priority:
High
Drafter:
Rick Spencer
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
Rick Spencer
Definition:
Approved
Series goal:
Accepted for lucid
Implementation:
Implemented
Milestone target:
milestone icon ubuntu-10.04-beta-2
Started by
Rick Spencer
Completed by
Michael Vogt

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

pitti, 2010-03-02: Moved descriptive bits from whiteboard to wiki page and description

pitti, 2010-03-02: Criteria, approach, number of apps look fine to me, approved. The actual selection of the apps falls under "implementation" and is not covered by this spec review (only the criteria).

[jorge] What about apps that "complete" something that we're shipping already? For example I install "openoffice.org" to get the rest of the apps (notably the database app) or should we include those seperately?

[sebastian-s] I think the installbase statistics should at least be considered as a guide on what software to feature. Having feature apps based on the love of some will not reflect the Ubuntu user base. I further think that there should only be one program per category.
Similar programs than those coming with the standard installation should be avoided - better change the standard installation else it gives a strage taste to the Ubuntu experience (Ubuntu ships software XY but they feature software XZ although they are very similar).

[gsmx] What happened to the idea of 'software-packs'? Like a 'featured image edit pack' that could include the install of Gimp, Inkscape, Phatch, (maybe Blender) etc?

[qense] I think the Featured Applications should also list what application it replaces, if it replaces another application. E.g. AbiWord is a replacement for OpenOffice.org Writer. It would make things a lot easier if the user was told what the application replaces -- if it does replace anything -- and asked whether he or she wants to remove the previously installed application. (Which doesn't go really well if it's a dependency of ubuntu-desktop. Problem!)

[robert-ancell] qense, Nothing in featured applications will replace any existing applications. The idea of this section is to list some things that are either too big to be included on the CD or don't have a wide enough appeal for all CD users. We want to show good examples of open-source software.

[didrocks] as discussed with rick, I'll make sense as the features app are the apps we can't include in the CD, that we ship all of them on the DVD for consistency (and so, DVD is ubuntu CD + featured apps + translation for all languages). The consequence is that the DVD will have universe software on it, I don't know if that's a strong issue though.

[pitti] Right now the DVD can only contain packages from main and restricted.

[Ben] If we're going to do this much changing anyway, can you at last consider supporting remastersys, to build custom iso's out of the standard releases?

(?)

Work Items

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