[Brainstorm 2010] Downloads

[dneary]

This thread is part of the Maemo Brainstorm 2010

What can we improve between now and six months from now in the application downloads interface for Maemo to ensure that it stays relevant in the MeeGo world?

Propose your ideas and suggestions here, let's talk about it, and summarise the best ideas and conclusions in the Brainstorm 2010/Downloads wiki page

[bergie]

Originally Posted by dneary

What can we improve between now and six months from now in the application downloads interface for Maemo to ensure that it stays relevant in the MeeGo world?

One thing we're working on is porting the Downloads pages come straight from the Packages service. If Packages gets hooked up to OBS then Downloads could also be a source for MeeGo applications...

[mikkov]

Originally Posted by bergie

One thing we're working on is porting the Downloads pages come straight from the Packages service.

Could you elaborate what does this mean in practice?

I would like to see more statistics: per day, week, month and per category.

I would also like to see Jaffa's idea of donations interface http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/mae...ry/023980.html

Generally it would be good that have some idea how Downloads and maemo.org relates to Maemo/MeeGo Harmattan (or what ever it is called). After all Harmattan is using Debian tools and the whole maemo.org is geared for that.

[bergie]

Originally Posted by mikkov

Could you elaborate what does this mean in practice?

* Better performance than current Downloads UIs
* Newer OCS API for app downloads and analysis
* Ability to post screenshots to app page already during Testing cycle
* More freedom for adding new views and features to Downloads (old Downloads system was using a stock Midgard product listing component)

[Jaffa]

As mikkov says, I want one of the high-level goals to be a donation framework similar to addons.mozilla.org has, and I outlined in the URL above.

This feature, if added to Downloads would also be something we could offer the MeeGo community to reuse. This'd be an example of investment in maemo.org which wouldn't be wasted if we can all decamp to meego.com and be happy MeeGo users in 12 months.

[Siggen]

I'm hoping for something like Cydia on iPhone, its also based on the debian system. I dont like the fact that the application page is drawn in HTML though cos you see commercials all the time. Also I would like it to start the download and install in backround like Ubuntu Software Center (also based on the same technology as Cydia and Hildon Application Manager).

Screenshot from Cydia:

[[DarkGUNMAN]]

The ability to sort applications by 'Date Added' to allow viewing of the newest apps to the repository.

[javispedro]

Originally Posted by bergie

One thing we're working on is porting the Downloads pages come straight from the Packages service. If Packages gets hooked up to OBS then Downloads could also be a source for MeeGo applications...

(Just compiling stuff complained about on IRC)
- What does this mean for third party repositories?

[Jaffa]

Originally Posted by Siggen

I'm hoping for something like Cydia on iPhone, its also based on the debian system.

How is their payment system implemented? danielwilms has been working on appdownloader, a Qt-based application using the APIs bergie references.

[epage]

I'm guessing this might be a bit more relevant for the brainstorm process then these brainstorming sessions but this had a lower barrier to entry

One thing for us to think about is what problems have Maemo 4.1 users had when Maemo 5 came out.

Some I can think of include

• Differentiating discussion, announcements, and bugs between platforms.
• Finding what apps are not abandoned (for longer term viability)
• Finding what are the new gems (Telescope, Maemo 5 theme, my applications )
• Finding if the apps I use are available on new/old platforms for both transitioning and judging developer support.

So some things we currently do:

• A download site per OS with links to software for other OS versions
• Top rated and new applications lists
• Break apps up by category

And now my idea. It would be helpful for both discoverability of apps and discerning there relevance if we had a way to compare them. I would suggest at minimum we support statistics that are common to all apps that we can pull automatically plus links to feedback.

Stats I can think of

• Rating / Downloads
• Frequency of Update Metric (for if its still maintained)
• Platforms supported (beyond the "can I run it" seems like it can give a feel for staying power)

If we want to get fancier we could allow people to link common apps and produce side-by-side feature lists.