Adopting AppData in KDE?

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Saturday, November 2, 2013 09:27:18 John Layt wrote:
> One obvious question is how this might relate to Bodega if KDE chooses
> to switch to that? 

The same files could be used to generate asset descriptions for use with 
Bodega.

>What does Gnome shipping their own official "App
> Store" mean for cross-distro/cross-desktop app store efforts and do we
> need to start working on our own now, or will Bodega fill that need
> for us?

This is an area of understandable confusion, but Bodega and AppStream do 
rather very different things.

AppStream is a way to present a more modern interface to packages in the OS 
vendor’s repositories. (Theoretically, 3rd party repos too.) It is rather 
unhelpful for non-package-manager-packages, for non-application content types 
or for use as an in-app system. 

Last I looked, AppStream has as a goal utilizing OCS for user interface. OCS 
theoretically supports payment for items, but this process is not only 
woefully underspecificed in OCS (as in: not documented at all) it does not 
provide for an open market but a centralized warehouse+storefront 
conglomeration just like all the proprietary app stores out there. Given that 
the only complete implementation of OCS available is proprietary, I don’t 
think this is a surprise.

OCS is, generally, horribly designed. I am even hesitant to use the word 
‘design’ in combination with OCS. It is really that bad, and why we did not 
use it for Bodega.

AppStream is very focused on the needs of desktop Linux. There is *nothing* 
wrong about that in the least, but it leaves mobile, embedded and server use 
cases (not to mention more general web based ones) unserviced.

Bodega addresses all of the above.

There are a variety of potential collaboration points for Bodega and 
AppStream, including (and probably not limited to):

* Bodega being able to process AppStream data files as a way to import 
applications as assets in the warehouse. This would be similar to how we 
handle Project Gutenberg’s book catalog, for instance.

* AppStream could use Bodega as a way to provide the user participation side 
of things: ratings, comments, user submissions, etc.

If Bodega and AppStream do continue on without collaborating, which is a valid 
option, there really will be very little in the way of overlap between the two 
and I hope over time we can make it clear that they are really not comparable 
systems.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo