GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 725002
Allow disabling of web apps category
Last modified: 2014-04-11 16:48:41 UTC
Using Gnome 3.11.x/Software 3.11.90, pre-configured web apps appear mixed in indiscriminately with actual software, both in the overview search results and in Software search results. Please make it possible to toggle visibility of these, and also if possible differentiate them as web apps in Software. Some other issues - they don't have a category (?) so aren't browsable, version shows as Unknown (as opposed to 'not applicable' I guess), and 'Proprietary' for the licence field suggests that proprietary software will be installed/run on the user's machine, a very different proposition from an ethical/risk point of view than the reality.
Seems like a legitimate issue to me. We don't want people to expect native apps and be disappointed when they get something else. I wouldn't mind having a separate category for the web apps, except that would leave us with an odd layout (we currently have 12 categories in 3 columns). Anybody got an idea how to do it nicely?
(In reply to comment #1) > Anybody got an idea how to do it nicely? An overlay on the icon perhaps?
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > Anybody got an idea how to do it nicely? > > An overlay on the icon perhaps? I was talking about using a separate category for web apps.
(In reply to comment #1) > Seems like a legitimate issue to me. We don't want people to expect native apps > and be disappointed when they get something else. > > I wouldn't mind having a separate category for the web apps, except that would > leave us with an odd layout (we currently have 12 categories in 3 columns). > > Anybody got an idea how to do it nicely? Merge System and Utilities? :) The distinction between the two categories doesn't seem to be very clear (and they have partially overlapping subsections as well, e.g. File Tools). OTOH, the limitation of a multiple of 3 categories will rear its head the next time a category addition/removal is proposed - should the layout of the Software application really be a deciding factor for inclusion or exclusion of categories? It would be nice to have a specific distinction for web apps as well (e.g. to disable the category entirely esp. since it shows up by default in overlay searches now), as they're fundamentally different from every other category in that they're not installed, local applications. In DConf at least if nowhere else?
I wouldn't like to create a web apps ghetto category. That's similar to creating a category like 'KDE' or 'Qt'. Frameworks and underlying technologies are not a good categorization key. What we could communicate instead though, is the apps reliance on being online and/or reliance on a web service tied to a single provider. Those seem to be the "limiting" factors for these kinds of apps compared to the native ones.
Fair enough, although unlike a framework/toolkit web apps are potentially substantially different functionally in that (depending on implementation of offline capabilities) they won't work without an internet connection, and in addition changes in their capabilities are under the control of the web service provider. Yes yes, I know that Maps is the same in terms of not working offline ;) although now that's occurred to me I'm off to file a RFE for that! So then a preference for "Show web apps" instead, and maybe a label for them in results similar to the "Installed" one? I think it is important to make the distinction somehow, as web apps (well, all of them in http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/repo/pkgs/gnome-software/web-apps.xml/6cbdb92d3c4b6fc6f9f78ba0ac33c52e/web-apps.xml at least) are remotely accessed proprietary software. Another approach that would avoid singling out web apps vs. local would be a filter by licence option (e.g. "only show free/libre software" or "include proprietary software"). An issue with this would be that even with a web app of an e.g. AGPL-licensed site, the licence would be subject to change out of step independently from the installation process. If a free/proprietary selection option was added, I'd like to advocate for separate handling of licence and patent issues (e.g. codecs) as some of us live in countries where software patents are not valid, so are able/happy to install libre software that might be patent encumbered elsewhere. So that would mean wanting to see for instance only libre software (i.e. none of the current web apps), but also still being able to see software with region-specific patent issues.
Sorry Jakub, somehow missed your second paragraph re. my first! But the online distinction would still sweep in e.g. Maps, and is probably a fuzzy line for other applications.
We have the banners that are displayed when installing standalone packages. Perhaps we could show something similar in this case. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/master/software/version2/software-standalone-repo.png "Internet Only Application This application can only be used when there is an active internet connection."
That sounds appropriate to me.
I've implemented this in https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-software/commit/?id=ecb95b95e88429544b17f593fadf17a66925ccab