Lies Neither of these are “App Stores” in the way average people know them. You can neither buy or sell products in these so-called ‘stores’… …yet. The wording on those two screenshots above is both hilarious and sad. It’s very reminiscent of People’s Front of Judea or Slim Shady. Anyway, here follows a bit of a moan about all this (the app stores, not Monty Python or Eminem). Background I have previously lamented on the following subject as a stream of tweets.

To be clear, I’m not complaining that we don’t have these aforementioned applications on the Linux desktop. That’s not the point. The point is “we” still don’t have a robust way for developers to monetise their application development work.

Most desktop Linux users run Ubuntu. Followed by others you’ve likely heard of like Arch, Fedora, Manjaro, SUSE and friends. Most users of these desktop Linux distributions have no baked-in way to buy software.

Similarly developers have no built-in route to market their wares to Linux desktop users. Having a capability to easily charge users to access software is a compelling argument to develop and market applications.

For sure, I can (and do) throw money at a patreon, paypal, ko-fi or buy a developer some coffee, beer or something from their Amazon wishlist. But I can’t just click “Buy” and “Install” on an app in a store on my Linux laptop.

Maybe one day all the ducks will be in a row, and I’ll be able to buy applications published for Linux, directly on my desktop. Until then, I’ll just keep looking longingly at those macOS app developers, and hoping.

  • raubarno@lemmy.ml
    53·
    1 year ago

    Software was not meant to be someone’s ‘property’ that can be bought or sold. Everyone has a right to free download, modify and share, that’s the point of GNU and Linux.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
      82·
      1 year ago

      Ubuntu Snap comes close to what OP described, and so do npm, apt etc. They need to realize that the terminal is not an enemy. Text output makes it easier to resolve issues than “install failed” you get in many commercial app stores.

  • dark_stang@beehaw.orgEnglish
    16·
    1 year ago

    Flatpak started working on payments earlier this year, so that is happening. But have we forgotten about Steam? It’s mainly used for games yes, but your can sell software on it too. I’ve even bought some software on it.

  • moreeni@lemm.ee
    14·
    1 year ago

    People were developing proprietary paywalled software for Windows for years before Windows Store, or whatever it is called, was introduced.

  • h3ndrik@feddit.de
    8·
    1 year ago

    I think I would like to see Amazon, Google, Netflix etc to pay for the free and open source projects they use to make money and sell in their AWS and database offerings.

    I -personally- don’t miss a store for end users. Marketshare for Linux on the destop is slim anyways. That’s not where you earn a considerable amount of your money.

    And i like things like the value-for-value model. So maybe instead include donation links in the package managers and into the databases of the gnome-software etc. (I think it’s called packagekit.)

  • anothermember@beehaw.org
    8·
    1 year ago

    I would say that’s more of a feature than a bug.

    I think I would have more of a problem with the centralisation implied by this proposal than I would with paying for apps; a centralised “store” gives too much power to one organisation - but if you could choose to download one I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. But then we already have Steam for that.

  • Nefyedardu@kbin.social
    7·
    1 year ago

    Is there anything stopping something like connecting your credit card to GNOME Software Manager and then putting a big fat “donate” button next to the “install” button? I imagine there are legal considerations.

  • ulkesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
    71·
    1 year ago

    “store” - n. - a quantity or supply of something kept for use as needed

    A store doesn’t have to mean that something must be for sale. There are numerous Linux app stores that all function exactly as they are designed.

    • anothermember@beehaw.org
      6·
      1 year ago

      The term “store” grates on me a bit, until recently we just called them repositories/repos, I think that’s a better name.

      • ulkesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        It’s really just semantics. And the article just seems like a nonsensical argument, to me.

  • PrefersAwkward@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    You can build in subscriptions or support licenses to your open source apps. Look at cryptomator and bitwarden for example. I know others do it. (And the free version is about as good as paid. But you can pay for a few near features and to support the devs)

    And the beauty is that the package management takes no cut and puts no rules on payment methods.