Please Comment: Proposal to change the name of Applications -> Add/Remove...

[Tristan Wibberley]

On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 19:53 +0100, Oliver Grawert wrote:

> Am Donnerstag, den 15.01.2009, 10:29 -0800 schrieb Rick Spencer:

> > A proposal has been put forward to change the name of the 
> > "Add/Remove..." menu item.

...

> Add/Remove was initially designed to refer to the menu

It seems it no longer does that. I think it should return to that
purpose and remain "Add/Remove..."

Here's an example of it not doing what it should, it shows that I have
p7zip installed, yet there is no icon to start the p7zip application.

Packages should be divided between "GUI applications", "cmdline
applications", "features" and others that only show in
synaptic/aptitude/etc.


* The "Add/Remove..." button should remain.
* There should /also/ be a software library that shows the applications
from "Add/Remove..." but also shows cmdline apps and features
* There should be buttons to switch between the two UIs (ie,
"Add/Remove..." should have a button to go to the software library and
vice versa.
* Any applications that support plugins should provide a link to the
Software Library to browse their plugins.
* Any installed "feature" should cause relevant plugins to be installed
for all relevant installed applications. If a new plugin is added to the
repos it should be installed as an update of the feature, and if a new
application is installed, the relevant plugins for all installed
features should be installed. This would need dpkg to support "reverse
dependencies" of the form "RDepends: gstreamer & mp3" to indicate that
if you have any applications that depend on gstreamer and you have the
mp3 feature installed, you should get the package with that RDepends
(which would be a gstreamer mp3 plugin in this case).
* The Ubuntu distro upgrade GUI should be exposed from the Software
Library.
* Google should offer a link for any search terms that match
"Add/Remove..." and "Software Library" items that will cause firefox to
install the appropriate application/feature directly from the configured
Ubuntu repositories rather than them going on a wild goose chase
downloading stuff via links from who-knows-whom. Perhaps firefox should
tell google what repositories are configured somehow.

This is how I'd like my computer and my parent's computer to behave
(which I have to help them with when it is difficult).

-- 
Tristan Wibberley

Any opinion expressed is mine (or else I'm playing devils advocate for
the sake of a good argument). My employer had nothing to do with this
communication.