[packagekit] package concept

[Richard Hughes]

On Fri, 2007-12-07 at 13:05 +0100, Denis Washington wrote:
> The first thing I'd like to say is that I think your project rocks! The
> posssibility of distro-independent packaging front-ends and installation
> hooks will help to make package management even cooler than today.
> Thanks for that. :)

Cool! Thanks for the praise.

> However, I have a question about the terminology of PackageKit. Software
> is often referred to as "packages" in the front-ends; this makes sense,
> as mapping to the package-based backends is very straight-forward that
> way. But don't you think that this term is a bit technical for the
> average joe user? He or she might think in terms of applications, but
> certainly not packages.

Sure. Packages is just a way for us geeks to represent things. My
girlfriend installs "Applications" rather than "Packages".

> Some other front-ends handle things differently. Ubuntu's "Add/Remove
> Applications" application, for instance, only shows nicely labeled
> applications, not packages in the low-level sense with cryptic-looking
> package names (e.g. rather "KPowerSave" than
> "kpowersave-0.7.3-0.2svn20070828.fc8"). This is much better suited for a
> casual computer user. It would be great if something similair would be
> possible with PackageKit, provided the backends are able to provide the
> needed information.

Sure. Have you tried using a new pk-application with the GUI filter set?
That should only choose graphical applications rather than the geeky
stuff. I think we do quite a good job so far keeping the horrors of a
package_id away from joe-average, although we do need an "Application
Chooser".

> I'm not saying that the "package" term should be abadoned altogether;
> the concept makes much sense for power users, which don't only want to
> install applications, but maybe also libraries, development files etc.
> However, I think it would be cool if the organisation of software into
> packages could remain hidden to the average Joe.
> 
> What do you think?

It seems sane. Maybe now the focus should be more on people like my
girlfriend and less on people who know what IRC stands for - ideas
welcome :-)

Richard.