Experiment: an RPM that shows uninstalled apps in main menu

[Andrew Farris]

Denis Leroy wrote:
> This is an idea I've had about a year ago and gave some thought on and 
> off since then, but Richard Hughes has mentioned a similar idea several 
> times on this list as well.
> 
> The idea is to show the (large number of) applications available to 
> Fedora users through yum, but instead of a linear list displayed in 
> pirut for example, show them directly in the main menu: that way the 
> available apps are already categorized in a familiar way, and you can 
> see the application icons and short descriptions through the menu tooltip.
> 
> For kicks and giggles, I hacked up a proof-of-concept RPM here for F-8 :
> 
> http://www.poolshark.org/src/fedora-apps-0.1-1.fc8.i386.rpm
> 
> After installation, you'll have to restart the gnome-panel with a quick 
> 'killall gnome-panel'. The rpm is 5 MB, which is not bad for almost 1000 
> apps (remember we're only talking about GUI apps here, i.e. apps that 
> install a desktop file).
> 
> Screenshots:
> 
> http://www.poolshark.org/apps1.png
> 
> The RPM comes with a 'fedora-apps-update' binary that updates the 
> symlinks based on the apps already installed (so that an installed 
> application doesn't show up on the uninstalled list).
> 
> What command should this menu entries run ? i was hoping there would be 
> a simple 'pirut --install foo' or 'pup --install foo' option, but 
> apparently there isn't.
> 
> Comments ?
> 
> -denis
> 

Given that this rpm would already be carrying the entire list of available 
software in official repos, their .desktop files, executable names, and 
information about which package contains them...

I wonder if it would be feasible to start developing support for command line 
'yum install foo' suggestions to users (ala apt on debian/ubuntu systems).

For instance, user knows (from a friend or random webpage) that the program foo 
is neat, and tries to start it:
 > foo
 > Command not found: foo
 > This program is available for Fedora but is not currently installed.
 > To install this program type (as root): yum install FooPackage

While the menu offering would be nice for many users who are very new, it is 
going to also be alot of clutter, the suggestion of what package to install 
could be helpful as well for cli.

(I am aware yum search will tell the user which package might have the file, but 
its not anywhere near as intelligible to a new user as what apt provides for this)

-- 
Andrew Farris <lordmorgul at gmail.com> <ajfarris at gmail.com>
  gpg 0xC99B1DF3 fingerprint CDEC 6FAD BA27 40DF 707E A2E0 F0F6 E622 C99B 1DF3
No one now has, and no one will ever again get, the big picture. - Daniel Geer
----                                                                       ----