Re: GNOME Software improvements

[Richard Hughes <hughsient gmail com>]

On 5 July 2017 at 04:20, ColeRogers via gnome-software-list
<gnome-software-list gnome org> wrote:
> -There should be a multiplayer and a local multiplayer tab in the games
> section (two tabs not one) It would be nice to for when you want to play
> games with friends.  Also an fps tab would be good too since it is different
> than action.

The categories are based (both a superset and subset of) on the XDG
menu-spec category list -- is there anything in
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apas02.html
that we could use for multiplayer games?

> -Add a way to sort by best rated and most popular.

Isn't this what the search results are roughly doing? We've also not
got enough reviews for games on the ODRS to order the games in the
category list.

> -Currently the featured tabs do not seem to appear on Ubuntu gnome.  (If
> that is a bug I can tell you my setup).

Does this happen if you use gnome-software from upstream, e.g. what's
in Fedora? Ubuntu have a different set of apps chosen compared to
other distros.

> The star average also appears to be
> bugged, as all apps have a 5 star average on both the machines i set Linux
> up on.

Again, Ubuntu use a different system to all the other distros. We do
prefer to show apps with high star ratings on the front page, so that
would explain why most of them have high ratings.

> -Please add all the software that appgrid/ubuntu software center have since
> it is annoying to have to install them.  (Do you have a rule against some
> kind of software or something? If there is, add a setting to view all the
> packages)

We're never going to be showing packages, there are just too many.

> Also more packages would be awesome, particularly in software
> development and CAD (Which are lacking, but im a drafter and i do code so I
> am a bit biased). (Can you edit the packages or is that someone else's
> job?).  Battle for Wesnoth (the game) and Kate dont even seem to be on
> there!

For packages to show then need to install a valid AppData file --
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/chap-Quickstart.html#sect-Quickstart-DesktopApps
with that they should show up. It's a pretty low bar for inclusion.

> -Add a way to search while viewing a category like, utilities, games, etc.
> (This is the most important one really, it is super annoying to have to go
> back to home to search.)

Why do you need this? Are the categories so big? Most people prefer to
just search for "games quake" rather than searching *within* the
category.

> -Hitting a letter on the keyboard should either navigate to packages with
> that letter or begin searching.  (either one is good)

A single letter would match a huge number of apps...

> -The program runs a bit slow on older machines (core 2 duo, Pentium), so
> that could use work.

"Slow" is waaay to little information. If you run gnome-software with
--profile does anything take a long time to return? At the moment
Ubuntu uses a different set of plugins to Fedora, so it could be one
plugin takes longer than it should to complete.

> -Pictures are missing for so many packages as well as working links to the
> developers/host sites. Many also lack multiple screenshots which would be
> great.

This is also specified in the AppData file; you need to complain to
the upstream authors of the application if screenshots are missing or
bad.

> -The application itself looks kind of ugly, at least to me, and it is not as
> beautiful as the rest of GNOME.

You realize saying that to a project maintainer is like saying one of
their children is ugly? Joking aside, I think you need to qualify what
you mean a bit more, and provide concrete suggestions.

> -Ratings do not seem to appear until you have clicked on the package/app
> thing  (on MATE, i do not remember right now for GNOME)  this should happen.

I think you want to file that in launchpad, upstream we don't have the
same problem.

> -Make the user interface more usable, as it seems like the buttons are too
> far apart right now.

Can you describe some more what you mean? I think for design issues
you probably want to to talk to the designers in #gnome-design on IRC.

> -Add a dark theme for better contrast and use with dark themes.

We don't really support a dark theme; if it works it's more accidental.

> -Search is lacking right now in finding relevant packages to what you are
> searching.

I need waaay more info to make a suitable bug out of that; what were
you searching for, and what were you expecting to get?

> -Descriptions for programs are often bad and lacking in detail.

You need to contact the upstream project for that, see the AppData thing above.

> -More categories would be good when you want specific applications.  (IE:
> CAD, Video Editing and recording, Time management, etc).

Categories are hard; too many and you only have 1 or 2 apps in each
group, too few and you have too many apps. Wouldn't searching for
"time management" achieve what you need?

Richard.