Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2010 16:16:12 -0500 From: Jamie <jamie@geniegate.com> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: "app store" for open source Unix? Message-ID: <20100409211612.GB6032@apollo.podro.com> In-Reply-To: <alpine.NEB.2.01.1004091914440.10353@t1.m.reedmedia.net> References: <alpine.NEB.2.01.1004091914440.10353@t1.m.reedmedia.net>
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On Fri, Apr 09, 2010 at 08:27:55PM -0500, Jeremy C. Reed wrote: > Well why can't we have this for open source Unix for desktop users? > > I assume all these apps are designed to fit a certain mold, are based on > a consistent API, maybe using common templates, most have a standard > interface, etc. Well, different distributions have different "app stores" they're not web based (and IMO, hopefully never will be! it's a PAIN to install stuff like that on remote servers) I know you're already aware of "ports" so I won't go there. > I do understand the problem. The open source Unix community is so > diverse -- so many platforms, so many APIs, so many different developer > environments, so many opinions, and little money incentive. For cross platform, there is "pkgsrc" you might look into it, NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD and rumors... some linux's can use pkgsrc. We have the technology to do all this, but, not everyone uses a unix desktop. I for one would be disgusted if I needed a gui or a browser to install something. Browsing them is a bit of a hassle, I use 'grep' for that, but I guess there's something like: make search keyword="blah" (I never use that) Most of the apps have some kind of URL you can load for more info if you need it. I do wish there were a safe way to run the make config-recursive and have it "really" do it recursively, I wish the build system would test for a tty and if no tty, go into batch mode, and I wish it'd email me if it needed more from me. (and give me the chance to conf later one) Something like this: # echo "cd app/app ; make install clean" | batch batch runs the install, (I always use batch, it's well suited to this) Later on, it needs me to specify something, so, it detects no TTY, and instead sends me an email "Hey, I need some info!" (perhaps with an email attachment that I can "launch" and mail back) it sits there, in a frozen state, waiting for info (perhaps reading config from a unique named pipe) In any event, it should give me a unique ID (example: 1234) which might be a named pipe called /tmp/pkg-conf-1235.pipe Then, (if I can't do it via email), I simply login and run something like: # config-running-port 1234 Which fires up a gadget for me to supply additional info to the package being built, and things continue... (I suppose this stage could have a web based gadget, but security would be an issue, one would hope the web part would be a lower priority... I'd much rather be able to simply forward the config via email to an alias and have it fed into the pipe after being verified) Jamie -- http://www.geniegate.com Custom web programming Perl * Java * UNIX User Management Solutions
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