"Download & Install" vs "Repositories & Synaptic" and the need for a new URI [Was: Re: Going forward [Re: Automatix?]]

[Chanchao]

On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 13:04 +1200, Jason Taylor wrote:

> "Installing new downloaded software is one
> of the most common tasks performed by desktop users at home and in
> small offices. Until the Linux suppliers can make this task trivial,
> they will continue to miss out on a whole world of users beyond the
> command line geeks."

To which the totally obvious response is "Ha! We don't need any of
that, we have Repositories and Synaptic!" [chuckles, gloats, hi-five's all
around]. 

[Bear with me with the following, it gets interesting near the end. :)]

But is that a good response?  For sure, having Synaptic is great. It's
especially great if you know what you're looking for and if it's in the
repositories that you have enabled.

But even then, is that the way people go looking for software, browsing
Synaptic?  It is not. Because Synaptic is only Step Two.  The first step
is FINDING OUT what is the most suitable software anyway, and what it's
called. Only THEN can you fire up Synaptic and find it.  After that is
Step 3, the downloading / installation, which is a breeze and we can be
rightfully proud of that.

But I think we are not paying enough attention to Step one. When looking
for software I Google, read linux software sites, visit Sourceforge.  At
that point there is a bit of a disconnect because there's no obvious
point to click to proceed getting the software.  There IS, often,
download links for Red Had / Fedora, SuSe, Mandriva or other
distributions, which are listed for download.  Ubuntu is not listed.
("Ha, that's because ......... etc.")

1. Because Red Hat, SuSe, Mandriva packages ARE offered for download,
people get the impression that those are the dominant distributions
because there isn't even a mention for Ubuntu.  That's a ""marketing""
opportunity lost, because Ubuntu isn't mentioned. If it WOULD be
mentioned (offered) the implied message is "Hey, our software works with
Ubuntu" (and it helps establish that Ubuntu is a major distribution
because it's listed along with Red Had, SuSe and the others.)  ("Ha,
that's because........ etc.")

2. NO direct link mechanism exists from a web page DIRECTLY to the
package in Synaptic.  What we need is a web URI (Uniform Resource
Identifier, i.e. like http:, mailto:, ftp:, gopher:) that can have a tag
that points directly to the package in Synaptic.  Clicking it opens
Synaptic, and does a search for whatever follows the URI (lets call it
'apt:'), ready to 'Apply'. This would works similar to 'mailto:' which
also fires up an external (default) application, (the user's email
software), and starts a new message with whatever follows the 'mailto:'
URI in the 'To:' field.

Conclusion: (Free) Software developers should be encouraged to list
Ubuntu in their list of supported OS'es on the dowload page, even when
they don't have to offer a direct link to a download for it. (A
reference to the Ubuntu repository it's in (main, universe, multiverse,
or something else) would be useful)

In a perfect world, there would be a 'Ubuntu Install' link on that very
web page that opens up Synaptic. I realize new URI's don't happen
overnight, especially not when they're only relevant on some operating
systems, so if <A HREF="apt://our_cool_application@repository"] is not
feasible then perhaps some file type can be used that is downloaded by
Firefox and opens in Synaptic and triggers the needed search in
Synaptic. (Not an executable script that calls "sudo synaptic
-parameters", for obvious security reasons, but a document file that
opens with Synaptic and is understood by it.

(Even if my technical suggestions here are utter hogwash, do at least
acknowledge the ""marketing""/communications issue, the need to have
Ubuntu listed on the download page of more software applications. :)

Cheers,
Chanchao