Novell's open-source app store: We've heard this one before
I've written recently about the stampede of companies desperate to replicate Apple's success with its iPhone-focused App Store ("Apple App Store clone wars reach fever pitch"), but it appears the stampede is not yet complete. Novell, according to an article in PC Pro and further covered by my colleague Dave Rosenberg, is considering launching its own App Store for open-source applications.
There's just one hitch: we already have one.
In fact, we have several. Google Code, SourceForge, Code Haus, and other open-source code repositories already freely provide open-source applications. Beyond this, Red Hat tried to do a one-click installation experience with Red Hat Exchange (RHX) back in 2007. It didn't work as planned.
Holger Dyroff, vice president of business development at Novell, thinks cost will separate its open-source application store from the crowd, as he told PC Pro:
On the user end, all they'll see is an open-source applications store with one-click downloads of new software. Unlike the other stores though, they won't have to pay for any of those applications, which will be very attractive.
But this almost seems counterproductive for Novell. For years open-source companies have had to combat the idea that "open source" is synonymous with "free." I doubt Novell's investors will be happy if the market reacts in the way Dyroff expects and comes to believe open source can be had for free.
The only thing an open-source application store could do, over and above the various code repositories already serving up applications, is make the installation experience seamless, but this will never be feasible with enterprise applications, which always require a certain amount of customization and fine-tuning, whether proprietary or open source.
In sum, this appears to be an attempt by Novell to join the Apple App Store herd, minus the Apple App Store brand and momentum. Novell has been growing its Linux business consistently each quarter, but an open-source applications store is unlikely to move the needle further. While I'd love to see it succeed, I'm not going to hold my breath.
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Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
The interview somehow got lost in translation. The comments were made in connection with Moblin, which Novell is strongly supporting. We are working closely with netbook manufacturers and others to ensure strong application support for Moblin-based devices. Sorry for the confusion.
Ian Bruce / Novell.
Canonical and/or Novell could make it work by including proprietary enterprise applications for a cost alongside FOSS for free, but I think they are already working on something of that concept.
Perhaps, as you say, Canonical and/or Novell could help to move this concept along, to make buying & installing apps as easy with desktop Linux, as it is with smartphones.
Perhaps it would even make sense to integrate the Moblin app store with the Android Market, since there are plans in the works to run Android apps on Moblin. Then a user can find all the apps they want/need in one uniform storefront. This would even support a scenario where a user is running the Moblin desktop, but is only using Android apps. Cool!
- by ArtInvent June 9, 2009 10:16 AM PDT
- This idea is the very heard of most Linux systems, and IMO is the killer app of Linux. It's called the application repository system ('repo' for short) as you allude to, but it's actually already completely successful and integrated to most Linux distros and has been for years. Ubuntu users, for example have a quick way to access the repos, right on the root menu: it's called 'Add/Remove'. There are hundreds of recommended apps nicely categorized. Click, download, install. If you want the full unlimited menu of every possible available app (running into the tens of thousands) then you will use the more elaborate Synaptic, where you can add anyone's third party repo fairly easily and browse everything in one place. In either case, it's still just click-and-install simple.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(8 Comments)Again, this is a completely open system, and companies, developers, organizations, and even individuals can and do host their own app repositories for anyone to use. And yes, there are proprietary apps and closed source drivers etc in the repos as well.
The other brilliant thing about this system is that all of these apps are now centrally monitored, and any time an update is available for any app whatsoever, it can be automatically downloaded and installed. You can even do this completely automatically without any user input - it's completely up to the administrator.
If our intrepid blogger had any familiarity at all with Linux, he would know this. As I say, to me it's the probably THE killer feature of Linux that doesn't get a ton of press and I really don't know why.