Apper released!

dantti

Hi all,

after almost a year without a release Apper is finally out there :D, I have been very busy these days and it’s a bit hard to find some time to code this, I’ll keep improving Apper, which will gain some nice new additions to the next releases, but I can’t tell when that will be… (maybe you get a Christmas version)

The main changes are:

  • Removal of the left pannel, so we have more free space
  • Moved the summary of a package next to the package name
  • Embed most of the dialogs into the main UI
  • When you close Apper with some transaction running apper-sentinel starts a plasma job so you can keep an eye on your instalations
  • Reworked all Session Interface dialogs so it looks like a wizard
  • Made some changes to the code that check for updates (hopefully this will fix the bugs that some people had)
  • Use libpackagekit-qt2 which is way faster and uses less resources
  • Display repos while refreshing cache
  • Show the package version and size by default on the updates UI
  • Show the total updates size on the upates UI
  • Fix most KPackageKit bugs, yes not all are fixed 😦
  • Display a nice message when your system is up to date, as before you aren’t sure if it hasn’t updates since the UI looked the same… (see below)
Check out my previous post for more details about these changes.
As always I really hope you all enjoy it.
Apper released!

31 thoughts on “Apper released!”

  2. Love the new cleaner look, and I can’t wait to try all the other new features! Having tried the Ubuntu Software Centre, Muon, Appset-QT, Shaman and many other package management apps, Kpackagekit has always been my favourite. Apper is looking even better! Now I just wish they’d adopt it in Chakra… Still I kind of understand hy they don’t given that Chakra is rather unusual with effectively three types of simultaneous package management (packages, CCR’s and bundles).

    Reply
  3. BajK says:

    Awesome 🙂 I am already regularily building it from git to get the recent-most changes 😛
    I hope now that Apper is “finished” you can focus on your great printer-manager 🙂

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      hehe, I really wish I had time for the printer-manager, but now I’m even without a printer, not that this is a problem for coding but the missing part on printer-manager is the auto-installation of printers, so a printer would be helpful in this case :P, I believe at January I’ll have less debts so I can buy a laser printer again…

      Reply
    1. dantti says:

      Yes, it is possible to show the currently installed version on the list, if you fill a bug report making this wish (so I don’t forget) I’ll do it for 0.7.1 (with the column hidden by default otherwise the ui wll have too much info for normal users).
      For the second I’m not sure I follow what do you mean…

      Reply

  6. Hi Dantti, please, add a list of dependencies in this post, and it would be very nice if you also add a “readme” file in the tarball with dependencies and instructions for people who doesn’t know how to compile.
    Keep the good work ;D

    Reply
  7. skierpage says:

    So what *IS* Apper? I have no idea! Standard rant follows:
    1. You are the marketing department for your software.
    2. You never know who will come across your announcement, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
    So the second sentence of every announcement and blog post HAS to be a one-sentence overview of what Apper does. It’s a good exercise to come up with a crisp meaningful overview and no one will begrudge you the repetition.

    Reply

  8. awesome work. packagekit is imho a very important tool for foss. supporting each distro with their own tools is madness for software devs, so package kit allows for integration features despite the variety on our platform. but many ppl were/are not fond of apper due to its UI – this is a great step forwards! thanks a lot!

    Reply
  10. BajK says:

    Somehow I can’t get this App Install thing to work o.O I tried your cmake option and it says something like “App Install DB: blabla” but I don’t get the Apps in the nice view like before 😦

    And at the moment I can neither search nor browse the repositories; die search is greyed out and the categories don’t do anything. (what did I forget? :P) and at random a Plasma progress appears which seems to come from Apper but does nothing and does not progress etc.

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      if the search is disabled and nothing is working PackageKit is not working for you, which distro do you use?
      If kubuntu, for the apps stuff to work like before you need to get the sqlite db that kpackagekit had and set that on the cmake option.

      Reply

  11. Awesome I am already regularily building it from git to get the recent-most changes
    I hope now that Apper is “finished” you can focus on your great printer-manager
    +1

    Reply
  12. BajK says:

    Please, please, please include the Rating and Commenting feature so that I can finally remove that really bad Muon package management altogether 😦

    Reply
  13. Rafa says:

    Hi I’m a kubuntu 11.10 user, first when Muon software was started I had the opinion that it was a big improvement over kpackagekit. But, after being trying both for some time, I think Apper it’s beating Muon, two examples are:

    -Search for packages in Apper works better than in Muon. (Some times when I search a installed package Muon can’t find it, but Apper can)

    -Changes in the update’s manager ui (a big difference). Now Muon updates manager seems horrible.

    So, Good job!.

    However, there are still some things to improve in Apper and port some cool things avaliable in Muon to Apper will be awesome too.

    I want to ask you for one thing, what’s the purpose of the defaults button in the updates manager? i can’t understand why is there. Reset has a clear reason, deselect what you have selected, but “defaults”?. Maybe it has a good reason to be there, but in my IMHO it must to disapear.

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      Thanks,
      Currently I’m trying to fix some issues with openSUSE, later I’ll try to add the Ubuntu SC rating & friends.
      About the “Default” button on the updater ui, there is a reason, it’s not a very good one but there is a reason… the reason is that as Apper is a KCM module (so it can be in System Settings), some buttons on the UI have to be there. I’ll see if I can work around this issue as it being a single KCM is somehow easier to deal with this..

      Reply

  14. Thank you Dantti for such an excellent piece of software 😀

    One question – will Apper support showing more detailed download progress (As in: Which packages are being downloaded, progress on each package, etc.) in the future? Apper 0.7.0 included in openSuSE 12.1RC doesn’t seem to support this feature. It’s not a major issue, but it would be definitely nice to have 🙂

    Keep up the good work 🙂

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      it already does, if you browse through my posts you will see such UI, it`s now up to your backend to support such feature aptcc & yum already do that.
      Best.

      Reply
  15. John says:

    The only 3 packages I removed immediately after I install everything in fedora 16 dvd are abrt, PackageKit-qt, and apper . Do you know how offensive you guys are? I have always been a fan of Fedora and always install everything in Fedora DVD. But I always use gnome. Now my gnome gpk-install-local pops up the qt window with K bell sound. I have to remove PackageKit-qt’s window. And due to dependency, apper had to go to. It maybe gpk-install-local picking up the wrong GUI, but you guys know best how not to be invoked carelessly. I try KDE from time to time. But recent Fedoras force me to remove the packagekit-qt. I have less chance to successfully run KDE.

    Reply

  16. Olá Daniel. Ótimo trabalho com o KPackage kit e toda a sua infraestrutura.

    Gostaria apenas de dar-lhe minha opinião: Se você fizer o KPackageKit ter as mesmas caracteristicas do Synaptic, vai ser ótimo cara. Pois o KPackageKit tem muito menos recursos do que o Synaptic. Acredito que foi esse o principal motivo da substituição pois o Muon possui uma interface com muitos recursos e é bem parecido com o Synaptic, que em minha opinião é o melhor gerenciador de pacotes que já vi.

    Fica então minha opinião.

    Até mais.

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      Concordo que o Synaptic tem mais opções do que o Apper, porém o público alvo é completamente diferente, não da pra falar para sua avó usar o synaptic é muito complicado. O Apper por outro lado permite que um usuário mais leigo tenha acesso somente ao necessário, e devido a essa simplicidade o PackageKit foi rapidamente adotado por diversas distribuições, ter uma interface unica disponível em varios sistemas é muito importante para o mundo diversificado do linux. Quando o Muon foi concebido a ideia inicial era ter um gerenciador avançado, onde usuário avançados pudessem usa-lo, porém ele se estendeu a ideia de Software Center o que ai sim há duplicidade e falta de colaboração que onde me queixo.
      Mesmo que eu quisesse (mas não acho necessário) eu não poderia tornar o Apper um Synaptic pois o PackageKit é quem o limita.

      Reply
  17. Timo says:

    The Arch Linux repo has just introduced the pacman 4 series which include
    signing of packages as a new feature (thought disables ATM by default). Running
    apper with pacman 4 causes apper to ask if one wants install these unsigned
    packages. If one clicks yes the question just pops up again and continues in an
    infinite loop. You can’t get pat the question.

    (from https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=292256)

    Reply
    1. dantti says:

      Have you tried to run the lastest git version of Apper? If with the git version the problem persists it’s much likely to be a backend issue.

      Reply
  19. Andreas says:

    So when apper pop’s up another notification and I click it away, I don’t want to see the very same notification after some minutes again! This is very annoying.
    Just because there is a distribution release available does not mean that everyone will rush and install the upgrade right away. In the meantime apper pop’s up his annoying message over and over again.

    Reply

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