What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Hey! I was wondering which apps we can safely install on the N900 now. If we activate maemo extras, there is a good list of apps we can use, but are they safe? Or we should only install the 10-15 apps that are available without maemo extras?

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

I think all of them are okay:), they just try to scare u. I activate extra-devel and i install a bunch of cool programs and nothing wrong with them.

Some of the must have program like....qtirreco, FM radio, Maemo Mapper, Knots2, OpenArena, ScummVM, Pidgin Internet, recorder, VNC viewer. I can actually RECORD FM RADIO w/ "RECORDER"..wow!! And then i can set it as my ring tone. I can use qtirreco to control my TV....amazing! I can use Knots2 to stream ANY VIDEO IN ANY FORMAT on the phone...amazing. And Open Arena and ScummVM are amazing games with awesome graphics. I can use VNC viewer to look at my PC and interact with it like i am @ the pc (though i wasn't too fond of it).

And then of course there is NES, SNES, SEGA, VGBA emulators.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Thanks a lot for your useful reply!

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

You should still be careful, try apps one at a time from devel espescially.

Non-obvious problems can result, i.e. if an app is unoptimized, your battery may drain faster than you would expect. The FM Receiver app used to inadvertently disable the mic for instance.

If an app is not 'optified' it will speed up the filling of your root partition (which will brick the device)

I highly recommend reading about any app you install here first, especially from the devel (and to a lesser extent testing) repos.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

anyone know if numpty physics is safe to install. im dying to play that

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

be careful guys on downloading apps... from extras-testing mostly on devel... they are not recommended to use becoz it might break ur phone.... but if u still want is it on your own risk.... just want remind u guys.... =]

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

To the OP:

the apps frpm nokia you can take as safe and use without any concern.
The apps in extras are almost completely safe, and you should be able to use them without trouble (there's about 90 of them.)
Apps still in testing should be treated with a little more caution. Check them out in the repository list first to see their karma and and serious issues which have been reported.
Apps in extras-devel should be treated with a lot of caution.

Hope that helps.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Maemo extras are apps that were not made by Nokia? Has these apps been tested? And what are the ''extra-devels'' everyone is talking about?
Thanks, and pardon my noobyness

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

basically it's 3 steps.

A non-nokia free app goes into extras-devel first

After the developer feels the the app is stable enough for more generalized testing it can be submitted to extras-testing

After enough users test the app in extras-testing, and vote for it, it will be promoted to the extras repository.

So apps in the Maemo Extras repository have been tested by end-users in the extras-testing and extras-devel repositories.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

and the infamous other way...... people just putting deb files on websites to be downloaded... :)

I think kathy got it dead right though....

Extras-Development - Warning. Only use this area if a) you know what you are doing, b) you are prepared they could damage your device, and even brick them.

Extras-Testing - These should be better for you and are there for testing. Definitely go and check out their current karma, as in most cases the ones nearing 10 karma are very good. A few have almost made it through without being optified. So like me, i've only installed a few - and almost run out of rootfs space. Just be prepared, and check your device after each install.
Just remember - not everyone can always test everything - but anything that may not work should be very fixable by this stage :) As we all know, Microsoft software is buggy as hell in most cases, but they release updates for people :) - same scenario here :)

Extras and Nokia repositories - Should both be safe. This is not to say that software runs differently to the way you expect it too. You can report a bug whenever you want if you thin kit is a bug. Or if unsure, screenshot and describe your issues here to see what others think :)

(Ctrl+Shift+p to screenshot your device, your image will be saved in the images folder, i then use pixelpipe to share to flickr, and can then show the picture in here :) )

Advanced search on these forums are your friend :) - it is most likely someone has posted previous issues or bugs. So remember when you post to give your issue a clear title!
Good Example - UK Vodafone Internet / 3G - File download issues
Bad Example - Why doesn't Vodafone let me download stuff?


Anyway back to the apps! - Extras-Testing always needs extra testers, so please pop in and take a look :) - start by testing the ones with good'ish karma for safety's sake, and when you get more confident, you can start testing any you want :)

Good luck! :)

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

And yes that's all in the wiki and yes it all came up a few days ago on talk and no i can't really get worked up about it because of the lousy visibility of the wiki and the lack of a good set of guidelines and stickies in talk to cover these things. But yes, a search would have answered all your questions.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

I've heard alot about the "extras" and "devels" what's the time frame for moving these over to safe apps? Like alot of these things have just stayed on there for a long time and not moving. Just interested in the process that's all.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Well, there's two sides to the process.

Some of the items in devel are there because they are 'half made' - the dev worked on it, got it vaguely functional, though not really very polished or optified, and then got distracted by some other project. On that basis, things can stay in devel for a long time.

On the other side, items get promoted to testing, but don't get enough interest from testers: an item in testing requires good testing, feedback and a certain number of positive votes to progress into extras. Without willing testers able to give good feedback, apps can get stuck there.

I believe there's also a 'wait time' between apps achieving their required karma and being promoted to extras, in case some strange previously undiscovered bug might turn up.

If people are keen to see more apps, taking a bit of risk on a few apps in testing is a way to contribute to the process.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Thats a good question!

i think once an app has 10 karma (+ a few advanced users have voted) - then there is a 10 day quarrantine before the app can make it into extras, from testing.

I'm not sure about development, but i assume it has a similar set of voting and karma?
So in theory it would look something like

1 compile and upload
(Compile time!)
2 Extras Development - Karma fails ^ returned back to 1 - Karma passed, proceed to step 3
(10 Days)
3 Extras Testing - Karma fails ^ Return to Development/stage 1
(10 Days)
4 Extras - w000p!


Edit - best to look here though!!

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

lol i think we are working in tandem today!....

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

And between us, we're giving very full answers!

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

is there likely to be a way on the app manager to sort apps by catalogue and then by catagory?

as i would liek to know where each app was coming from when looking through the list

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

ssshhhhhhh or someone will think we know what we are talking about :)

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

good question, might be worthy of a brainstorm if there isnt already one?

That can be expanded on by added an addons group for applications, so we can get rid of that gcompris rubbish! - (Sorry to the author!, but wow it bugs me seeing that every day!) :)

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

To find out which applications are in each catalog, disable all catalogs but one at a time. After starting Application manager,

1. Tap on the Application manager drop down menu at the top center of the display

2. Then tap on the Application catalogs button.

3. Select and disable each catalog except the one of interest.

4. Return to main menu and select download. Then tap the button for the category you are interested in.

Repeat for each catalog.

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Or select the package You want to install and press "Details" and voila...:

http://static.pixelpipe.com/f5691fba...55a34c9d_m.jpg

http://static.pixelpipe.com/1e83a9b7...98f558c6_m.jpg

As You can see on the above pic this particular package is in "Catalogue: Extras-Devel"... ;)

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

I use Extras and Extras Testing and didn't have any problem so far...!

Re: What are the safe apps currently ???
 

Hi,

I like to think of it like this.

extras-devel: Developer playground; I have a package here that just won't work on your device (Quick Clip) and I won't be fixing it in the near future. ;)

extras-testing: What a developer thinks is ready for end-users; I have a package here, TouchSearch 1.3-2, and so far 4 positive votes without a negative :)

Extras: Applications that have been voted ready for end-users; I have a package there, TouchSearch 1.2-2, and no complaints so far!

Note: there is no karma requirement to go from devel to testing, any developer can promote their app.