Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

I find it terrible. An end user should not have to look in two different places for apps. Doesn't make sense at all. You should be able to go to one place and find all available apps for your device. It is strange things like this from Nokia and other things which do not make their devices as accessible as they should be that has led to their allowing Apple to take the upperhand.

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

As I said to my first post, Nokia can include the ability to add extra repositories to the Ovi Store, exactly the same way the current Application Manager handles Maemo-Extras, Maemo-Testing and Maemo-Dev repositories. Nothing will change, except everything will now be hosted under one roof. The Ovi Store.

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

They plugged the "hole" where ovi stuff was installable with apt-get... So they're moving in the opposite direction...

Having only ovi store would be too draconian. We'd end up in the same place as symbian, where a certain popular free software had to organize a donation drive so they could afford to put it in ovi store too for free...

And hey, even on other phones nokia has atleast two-three software stores linked/installed anyway ;)

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

First of all, I don't think it is for any user. It's not annoying, and it's not confusing. Quite on the contrary, mixing the two into one would be a source of confusion, as the applications offered have different standards, different licenses etc.

But we're really talking about two things here:

One is Ovi Stor vs. the Maemo Extras repository as distribution channels.

The other is the Application Manager vs. the Ovi Store shortcut as two "doors" to distribution channels on the device.

(Things are even more complicated because the application manager isn't only the "door" to Maemo Extras, but also to official Nokia repositories.)

It might be useful to have an optional (!!) GUI that shows all available sources to the end user, and maybe in a better way than the Application Manager does; including screenshots, descriptions not hidden in the 2nd tab under "details", ratings, # of downloads, comments and so on. IIRC, such an application is being designed for the Extras repo and could be extended to include Ovi Store. (It would still be cool if it would show where the application comes from, then... to avoid confusion.)

What must not happen is one unified "app store"-like distribution channel (like Ovi Store takes over Extras or vice versa). It's good and healthy to have more than one channel. If well managed, there could even be a third one. (I remember a while ago there was the idea to set up a repo that's not financially supported by Nokia, so that it would be able to distribute applications that are not perfectly safe to distribute from a legal POV.)

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

+1
So well said and so true.

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

It must never ever happen that one "place" controls what you may install on your device and what not. We know this concept and it failed miserably.

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

The Apple 'solution' to this is to simply NOT have the other channel and applications. Ask yourself again, why would Ovi (or Ovi publishers) *voluntarily* want maemo.org apps there, and why would maemo.org app developers want to *voluntarily* take part in Ovi ?

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

I think it is dangerous to mix free (with the linux meaning) with proprietary. I feel that you cannot go iphone and linux together. Either you depend on the community to develop free software or you decide to contorol everything and charge for it. The users who expect openness generally tend to punish practices that threaten this openness. I do agree that the ovi store could be a category in the app manager, and I would like if free apps were clearly distinguished in the app manager. I hate when I install something only to find it is a trial version. (I will never, NEVER use documents to go because of that.) On the other hand, maybe the ovi store should stay where it is so that users who don't mind openness stay there, driving sales for Nokia and enable us to have a device like this. (I would hate to live in a world of iphones)
________
blonde girl Cam

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

What is so TERRIBLE about it??

Call me dim but I'm really not seeing why this is an issue at all. In pc world there have always been mutiple different places to download "apps" - it's only in unjailbroken I-world (and parts of symbian world) that there's only been one tightly controlled place. IMHO that is not a model for an open source system to follow. Rather than expecting meamo/meego/n900 to follow a closed phone model we should be happy that's it's following a more open model.

Re: Ovi Store and App Manager must be merge
 

I don't understand this mentality that anything done the Apple way is automatically the wrong way. An example is the capacitive screen issue. Every maemo fan seems to absolutely hate it despite the fact this is what the general public prefers. However, if Nokia had never ever used resistive screens and Apple always used resistive I bet alot of money that half of the people screaming that they hate capacitive screens would be banging on about how much they love it.

It is annoying because I go into the applications manager in my phone. I look through what is there. I then have to go on my PC and look what there is elsewhere. That is an unnecessary extra step. Open or closed it is irrelevant. What is relevant is convenience for the end user. I guess this boils down again to the point about this device not being for the average consumer who wants things accessible?

By the way I am not suggesting the items in the app manager should be on the Ovi website. I want all the apps in Ovi to simply be in the application manager so I don't have to waste my time going to Ovi.