GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 744376
Add a history tab to gnome-software
Last modified: 2016-02-20 21:13:07 UTC
Along side [All | Installed | Updates ] it would be good to have a history tab, something that would display either recent Install/Update/Remove history for the current user or all users on the system. Perhaps with similar output to `yum history`, for example: 285 | install ragel | 2015-02-12 18:27 | Install | 1 284 | install libacl-devel.x86 | 2015-02-12 18:18 | Install | 2 283 | install libatasmart-deve | 2015-02-12 18:17 | Install | 1 282 | install polkit-devel | 2015-02-12 18:16 | Install | 2 281 | install vala-tools | 2015-02-12 18:12 | Install | 1 280 | install vala-devel | 2015-02-12 18:11 | Install | 1 271 | update | 2015-01-27 17:12 | Update | 1 EE 270 | update | 2015-01-21 09:18 | I, O, U | 216 EE But graphical.
> It would be good Why? Which problem is this proposed to solve? And how common is that problem? Does it justify adding an element to the UI and maintaining additional code?
Problem: At the moment gnome-software doesn't provide a tool for viewing recent changes to installed programs on the system without looking at individually installed programs. Perhaps displaying updates in such a list is unnecessary, but software installed by users would be useful. If updates are included in the list, it would make it a convenient place for the user to revert a recent update or uninstall a recent program. Audience: * Any user wanting to remove one (or more, if entries are grouped by date perhaps) programs installed on a certain date. * Any user wanting to revert a recent update. * Any user wanting to view programs installed by other users on the system. A icon in the tabs bar could be displayed in a similar way to the installing notification. UI Cost: Minimal. new Gtk.TreeView and maybe new Gtk.CellRenderer's. new Gtk.ToggleButton same as: <object class="GtkToggleButton" id="button_installed"> Functionality Cost: Expensive. Possibly unjustified. I was thinking about throwing together a mock-up with just the UI an basic functionality, but I almost certainly don't have time to write a feature complete version.
All three of those problems can be solved by adding functionality to the existing Installed tab. Problem 1, can be solved by https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=744377, Problem 2 can be solved by sorting programs in the same way the iOS and Android App Store do, with the most recently updated apps at the top. Regardless of whether or not your complaints are legitimate or justified or reasonable, I agree with Andre that adding a History tab is absolutely not the way to go about solving any of these problems, and is adding unnecessary complexity, both complexity for the users, and a large portion of added, unnecessary code that must be maintained. I would consider making 3 separate bugs for each of your complaints, and then there possible solutions to those problems can be discussed, including whether or not they are actual problems.
I think the install history bits we added for 3.18 go a long way to fixing this bug.