F20 Self Contained Change: Application Installer

[Jaroslav Reznik]

= Proposed Self Contained Change: Application Installer =
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/AppInstaller

Change owner(s): Richard Hughes <rhughes at redhat.com>, together with the 
desktop team

We will replace the existing gnome-packagekit frontends (gpk-update-viewer and 
gpk-application) by a new application. 

== Detailed description ==
The current PackageKit frontends are focused on (surprise!) packages.

The new tool, tentatively named gnome-software, is designed from the beginning 
for installing applications. It will present applications with information 
that is relevant to users (screenshots, reviews, descriptions, ratings,...) 
instead of information that is relevant for packagers (dependencies, package 
size, file lists,...).

It will be possible to search and browse for available applications.

gnome-software will also be used to present information about available and 
installed updates. Notifications about available updates will launch gnome-
software if the user chooses to see details. gnome-software will be fully 
integrated with 'offline updates' - if an update includes system packages, it 
will be done as an offline update, regardless whether it gets initiated from the 
gnome-shell menu, a notification, or the gnome-software UI.

To improve some problematic aspects of the updates user experience (long 
waits, locks), we will use the new hawkey backend for PackageKit. 

== Scope ==
Proposal owners:
* Implement minimal required functionality for application installation in 
gnome-software
* Implement minimal required functionality for updates in gnome-software
* Replace gpkg-update-viewer
* Package gnome-software
* Include a hawkey backend in PackageKit and use it 

Other developers:
* Use gnome-software instead of gpk-update-viewer when dealing with updates in 
gnome-settings-daemon, gnome-shell and gnome-control-center 

Release engineering:
* Make metadata available for packaged applications in Fedora (screenshots, 
icons, ratings,...). Not all of this needs to be in place for F20 

Policies and guidelines:
* No immediate changes needed; longer-term, we probably want to make changes 
to way applications are distributed and installed
* The update experience will also benefit from proposed changes to batch 
updates 

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