Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: software-center
Steps to reproduce (true story):
- Your friend whom you've just introduced to Ubuntu tells you that she's
downloaded the just-released Firefox 4 and wants help installing it on her
maverick laptop
- Seeing the .tar.bz2 file, start explaining the basics of software management
- Explain that the preferred method of installing a program is to use the
Ubuntu repositories via the software centre, and that software versions are
intended to remain fixed during each Ubuntu cycle
- Explain that, nonetheless, in the event of really wanting to install a piece
of software or a specific version which is not available in the Ubuntu
repositories, there are other methods; in decreasing order of preference:
PPAs/APT repos (packages self update), stand-alone debs (packages register with
the package manager, hence can be removed easily), and lastly stand-alone
tarballs like the one she got from mozilla.org
- Successfully demonstrate/outline installation and uninstallation from the
Ubuntu repositories, from a stand-alone deb, and from a tarball
- After what so far seemed to go down surprisingly well, try to explain that in
order to add a PPA (the second-best method) you need to google for
(essentially) "site:launchpad.net ppa <software>", go to the result, copy some
string by hand, open the software centre, open Edit > Software Sources, go to
the Other Software tab, click a button, paste the string and press OK. APT
repositories are no better than this
- Exemplify by adding a PPA containing gimp 2.7
- Fail to use software centre to upgrade gimp
- Dismiss failure and update gimp using update-manager
- Now try to explain that in order to remove the PPA you just added and restore
the 2.6 version of gimp you need to install some package called 'ppa-purge', go
to the command line ("the what what?") and type some gibberish
- Silently agree with your friend's conclusion that in order to install
software in Ubuntu you need to be a computer geek
Launchpad PPAs offer a lot of additional software these days. However
they are not intuitive to use, and the wealth they offer remain the
privilege of a lucky few. Same goes for conventional APT repositories
like medibuntu. And tarballs are, whether we like it or not, often used
to distribute packages in a (sub-optimal) distribution-agnostic manner -
games and browsers come to mind. All four installation mechanisms should
be handled properly.
Two PPA-related features *must* be added:
- One-click addition of PPAs and other APT repositories, e.g., via some new URI
scheme like 'apt-add://<repository>' or similar, in line with the existent
'apt://<package>'. Integration in apt.ubuntu.com would be a bonus, of course
(e.g. "apt.ubuntu.com/ppa/ubuntu-wine"). Launchpad's PPAs should prominently
display a button/link to add the PPA, and software-centre should handle it
gracefully. Embedding the repository signing keys in the URLs would be ideal
(e.g. "apt-add://<repository>?key=ABC123")
- Integration of ppa-purge into software-centre, so that one can right-click on
a PPA or APT repository on the left pane, select 'remove' and have all relevant
packages correctly removed/downgraded.
Additionally, it would be useful if we had:
- Ability to search Launchpad's PPAs from software-centre directly.
And a last, somewhat crazier idea to deal with tarballed software:
- When opening a tarball that may contain software, the user should be given an
option to extract to some pre-defined directory under $HOME (e.g.,
$HOME/.user-software, or perhaps $HOME/User\ Software or something), and
possibly register any .desktop files it finds within the tarball with Gnome.
The best (least-intrusive) option in my mind is to integrate this into the
file-roller interface in the form of a button saying "This is software and I
would like to install it", and probably launch an extenal application to handle
it. [As a side effect, we get a button that could be used, in the case of .exe
files (handled by file-roller by default), to trigger the installation of
wine.] And of course, large warning signs pointing out the many problems of
this type of installations [or of trying to run windows software on Ubuntu]
should be displayed, with links to search the repositories or launchpad for the
package in question [or a native version/replacement for the windows program].
There are many potential drawbacks to installing software other than
from the official repositories, but the Ubuntu repositories can't
possibly cover everything (especially so for newer package versions - by
policy), and we need to help users accomplish the task by streamlining
and unifying the installation process as much as possible.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: software-center 3.1.24.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.38-generic 2.6.38
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Mar 24 03:28:01 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha amd64 (20110301.1)
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-03-23 (0 days ago)
** Affects: software-center (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug natty running-unity
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/741441
Title:
Ease installation of software outside the Ubuntu repositories
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