desktop-packages team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Insulting the design of software can be great fun. Unfortunately, you
made three critical mistakes. First, you confused the design with the
designer. Second, you did it in a bug report, making it measurably less
likely that the report would result in anything being fixed. And third,
the design specification is publicly available but you didn't even
bother to read it to check whether it was actually a problem with the
design.

If you had read it, you would have known that there is nothing about the
design that requires USC to be online to install a .deb package.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#standalone-package> If there is
any .deb particular package for which "Install" is greyed out, it is a
bug.

I just tried USC 13.10 on Ubuntu 14.04, offline, with several .debs.
Where a dependency wasn't satisfiable, I got a message saying so, and no
"Install" button at all. Where a later version was already installed, I
got a message saying so. And with a .deb for the World of Goo game, I
got a clickable "Install" button.

So if you have a specific example of a .deb where it doesn't work,
please make a less-toxic bug report with the .deb linked or attached.
Thanks.

** Changed in: software-center (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Invalid

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to software-center in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1496136

Title:
  Software-center fatal design flaw

Status in software-center package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  I know this bug will simply rot until support for the product is
  dropped, like 98.5% of all Linux bug reports, but __please__ don't let
  a 12 year old design the next software installation tool.

  Fatal Flaw:

  Choose a machine which has no network connection (or create a VM which has no network connection)
  Install ubuntu, any version where software-center is default.
  Insert a thumb drive with a .deb on it and do what you have to so contents of thumb drive are displayed.
  Double click your .deb (doesn't matter which one)
  Notice the "install" button remains greyed/grayed out.

  I have a .deb which has zero external dependencies. It installs and
  runs on Ubuntu 12, 14, and 15 both 32 & 64-bit flavors. It is an
  application which was written for machines which have no network
  connection.

  The install button should only be greyed out if the package provides a
  dependency list. Truthfully it should never be greyed out. It should
  allow a user to attempt installation, then error out if dependencies
  cannot be satisfied.

  Self contained kiosk type applications (a growing use of Linux in
  general and Ubuntu in particular) cannot be installed by mere mortals
  unfamiliar with terminal hacks and unwilling to perform them.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: software-center 13.10-0ubuntu4.1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-49.65~14.04.1-generic 3.16.7-ckt15
  Uname: Linux 3.16.0-49-generic i686
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.13
  Architecture: i386
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Tue Sep 15 15:33:57 2015
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-08-05 (41 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release i386 (20150218.1)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: software-center
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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