[Bug 12837] New: "Install Software" link on the desktop

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Documentation | General

           Summary: "Install Software" link on the desktop
           Product: Documentation
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: General
        AssignedTo: debzilla at ubuntu.com
        ReportedBy: ssj195 at hotmail.com
         QAContact: ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com


Hi all,

I'm not entirely sure where to put this as it is a general suggestion about
useability, so please feel free to shuttle it off to its proper place :)

I've now lost count of the number of times I've seen newcomers from Windows
completely at a loss as to how to install software under Ubuntu, or Linux in
general (here's a random one I just happened across today:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=50478).  This is completely
understandable - the Windows Way of installing software is to google for the app
name, find the suppliers' homepage, download the setup.exe, run it, and voila -
your app is installed.  However, an attempt to perform this ingrained procedure
with Linux is, to a newcomer, an exercise in frustration - even if they can find
a pre-compiled binary, it will probably be a .deb and not specifically marked as
being for Ubuntu, and if they can't - well, I'm sure you can imagine the hell
they'd go through (I went through it myself when I first started using Linux -
except I had the luxury of having gcc installed by default!)!

Now, lots of people have been advocating radically new approaches to the "The
Software Installation Problem" (for example, technologies such as AutoPackage),
but this is not what I'm going to do in this post - for the record, I think the
idea of having centralised repositories is a great one, especially from the
point of view of future security against malware, and being able to select 20
apps to install, click Apply, and have them all installed without any further
effortt on my part is fantastic - and the people I've helped out on this issue
quite often agree, as this rather touching example demonstrates!:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=178556&postcount=13

No, the course I would like to propose is far, far simpler - it is to simply
place a link on the desktop to Synaptic (or perhaps its successor - I think a
gui app that concentrated far more on Apps over Libraries and presented the user
with a slick, nicely compartmentalised range of apps with screenshots and
descriptions etc would be best - this is being worked on, I gather) marked
simply "Install Software".  Hopefully then, when a user thinks "I'd like to
install a new program!", the first thing they will to do is not to attempt to
install apps in the Windows Way (which is doomed to failure - big,
putting-off-Linux-for-life failure, according to many reports I've heard on
various online sites), but to instead click on the obvious icon on the desktop
and discover something that Windows does not (and probably never will) have - a
vast library of apps, with searchable descriptions, pics and other info all
presented in a consistent way, all installable with a few mouse-clicks.  I doubt
it will solve "The Software Installation Problem" completely, but I'm of the
belief that this one small change could immediately transform something that is
traditionally a confusing and frustrating aspect of Linux into something that is
a clear advantage over Windows.  

And yes, I'm aware that the installation of software is discussed in the various
HOWTO's, Guides, and Wiki's, but the existence of posts like the examples above
show that people are not reading them - again, understandable, as I read no
manuals when I started to use Windows, and as a Windows user, had absolutely no
expectations that the installation of software would be so radically different
under Linux.

Thankyou for your time, and keep up the excellent work!

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