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.

  • ares35@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    many distros have something a kin to a software ‘store’. the strength of open source, where everyone is free to ‘do their own thing’, is also why a central ‘app store’ for linux won’t happen without a major shift in how things are done. there’s simply way too much fragmentation.

    something like snap or flathub would have to become the dominant distribution mechanism for linux applications in order for a ‘store’ to have the user base to make it possible. canonical is trying with snaps but ubuntu’s marketshare is far from enough to make it a reality, and all they’re doing for their efforts is pushing some users away.

    steam is an alternative. it is a proven and time-tested multi-platform distribution channel. there are some ‘non game’ titles on it, not many, but there are some. and it would be up to valve to market it differently, and perhaps change the pricing structures to make it more appealing to developers of non-entertainment titles. 30% off the top is just too fucking much for smaller developers to give up.