openSUSE AppStore is Awesome
openSUSE is in the process of transforming it's software search site (software.opensuse.org) into a cool AppStore similar to that of "Google Play". It will be a one stop shop where you can get your favourite games , Office tools, educational software, development tools etc . The AppStore caters to all of the officially supported desktops namely KDE, GNOME, XFCE and LXDE. The site is currently in beta state. The AppStore is powered by openSUSE Build Service. The openSUSE Build Service is a system which allows one to build and distribute binary packages from sources for various distributions like openSUSE, Fedora and Debian.
Users can browse through the AppStore and locate the required software very easily and install it onto their machine using One Click install technology . All the software hosted at the AppStore is broadly classified into the following categories:-
Using the AppStore
Once you click on any one of the images indicating various categories of software it will take you to pages where the respective categories of applications are displayed. When we choose Games category it takes us to a Games AppStore as shown below.
Each application in category page is accompanied by a brief description of the application . Most of the applications also have a accompanying thumbnail. After deciding the game we want , we can click on the relevant image and it will take us to a page with a install button. I clicked on "Chess" game and it took me to a individual application page which has more details about the game and a "Install" button.
We can navigate to various sub category pages using the links in each application category page. Various "related category" pages like Logic Game, Board Game etc. are available under Games Appstore
On clicking the install button a YMP file is downloaded. The ymp file contains instructions about the repositories and packages that are required to install the relevant software.
The YMP invokes the YaST installer and provides a awesome wizard which enables users to easily install the required software. The AppStore fully harnesses the hidden potential of the famed SUSE One_Click_Install.
AppStore Tips & Tricks
Search for application
One can easily search for any application using the search box in the top of the page as shown below.
Search for application for other distributions
Once can search for applications built for distros other than openSUSE by turning on the "All Distributions" option when searching for an application.
The One-Click installation process is currently supported only for openSUSE and not for other distributions. Using the AppStore one can download the binary installation files(*.rpm, *.deb) for other distros . Banshee Media player rpm for Fedora 17 can be downloade as shown below.
If we click on the repository name ( refer above screenshot ), it will take us to the build service page which will display instructions for installation as shown below.
No comments:
Post a Comment