gnome-software should (?) be separated from the packagekit

Bug #2019137 reported by Milachew
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-software (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Given that the Snap Store is currently the default in Ubuntu instead of GNOME Software, the only reason GNOME Software (along with the Snap Store) can be installed is to support Flatpak applications.

In the current instance, if you want to add flatpak support, GNOME Software is installed with both the apt packagekit add-on and the flatpak plugin, which is duplication of work (Software Updater already works on updates, and Snap Store works on showing deb apps).

And since the future app store explicitly refuses [1], [2] to support flatpak applications, users who need this package format will be forced to put GNOME Software with everything I pointed out above.

Therefore, it would be very nice if the developers removed the packagekit add-on from the "gnome-software part" and made it a "plug-in for gnome-software".

I, unfortunately, have no such experience with packaging deb packages at the moment, and it turns out that it will obviously be necessary to work out both the code part (which, as far as I can see, won't be very difficult [3]), as well as the part where we will have to figure out where and how to insert the plugin as mandatory (for example, when the user completely gives up on snap packages) and as optional (because the Snap Store already stands).

Also, let me know if this needs to be sent to upstream (Debian) instead of here.
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1. https://github.com/ubuntu-flutter-community/software/issues/126
2. https://github.com/ubuntu-flutter-community/software/issues/30
3. https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/1031279

Milachew (milachew)
Changed in gnome-software (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Matthias Klumpp (ximion) wrote :

Not sure what you mean, but a GNOME Software with no PackageKit would mean that users are completely unable to install or remove any application from the Ubuntu archive, in addition to flavors not being able to use offline upgrades anymore.
So this sounds like a suggestion with tons of huge drawbacks and annoyances to users, and no (?) advantage at all.

Revision history for this message
Milachew (milachew) wrote :

Matthias, I did not suggest to remove PackageKit support completely.
I was suggesting to separate PackageKit and make it a separate plugin.

This would make it possible to install GNOME Software exclusively with the flatpak plugin, for those times when you only need to install flatpak to the current Ubuntu installations which already include the Snap Store by default.

At the moment when trying to add something related to flatpak, one more store (besides Snap Store) is installed which operates with deb packages. This makes no sense, since Snap Store already does this (and it does it, as I understand, wherever snap is installed).

Revision history for this message
Milachew (milachew) wrote :

Also, I would like to emphasize that I am essentially just suggesting that make gnome-software more "modular".

I'm not proposing to completely eliminate/cut out and not ship PackageKit as a basic package, if it's really needed somewhere.

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