brainstorming for UDS-N - Application Developers

[Scott Kitterman]

On Tuesday, September 28, 2010 05:31:26 pm Rick Spencer wrote:
> We want to empower, engage and harness application developers to develop
> on and for Ubuntu. These sessions cover the many elements in achieving
> that goal.
> 
> What's high on your list for this area?
> 
> There are some existing conversations and threads that people should
> feel free to comment on in addition to any new areas:
> * Changes to the implementation of the New Apps on stable releases
> (suggestions have included changing the system to use backports as an
> avenue onto a stable release, for example).
> * Changes to the Application Review Board process (including, for
> example, eliminating it and replacing it with a streamlined backports
> process).
> * Enhancement, changes to tools such as Glade, Gedit, etc...
> * Anything about Quickly and/or Quickly Widgets, including new
> templates, improvements to the existing template, new widgets, etc...
> * Information Architecture for application developers, including a
> developers manual, etc...
> 
> Cheers, Rick

If we are going to meet the goal of really streamlining the process for 
developers to get their applications in front of users, then we need to change 
what it is that is delivering the application.  I don't think that a 
traditional Debian package is going to be able to support a truly lightweight 
process.

If we are going to engage in radical disintermediation in application 
delivery, then we need a structure in place that makes it feasible for end 
users to make reasonable decisions about installation and use of applications 
that don't have the "Ubuntu stamp of approval".  Such a system would have a 
number of characteristics that we don't support:

1.  Applications would have to be isolated from the system (including the 
network), from user data, and from other applications without specific 
authorization from the user.

2.  Users would have to be able to evaluate applications in the software 
center based on user feedback (I think it is already planned), what data and 
system elements the software has access too, and other elements like ratings 
of other applications from the same developer.

As we've discussed on ubuntu-devel before, this probably means some type of 
well engineered sand box system with access restrictions to ensure the 
application cannot step outside of it's authorized accesses.

Scott K