GNOME Software is a utility for installing applications and updates on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

. It is part of the

GNOME Core Applications GNOME Core Applications is a software suite of approximately 30 application software that are packaged as part of the standard free and open-source GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Core Applications have the look and feel of the GNOME desktop, an ...

, and was introduced in GNOME 3.10. It is the GNOME front-end to the

PackageKit PackageKit is a free and open-source suite of software applications designed to provide a consistent and high-level front end for a number of different package management systems. PackageKit was created by Richard Hughes in 2007, and first intr ...

, in turn a front-end to several

package management systems A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. A package manager deals w ...

, which include systems based on both

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

and DEB. The program is used to add and manage

software repositories A software repository, or repo for short, is a storage location for software packages. Often a table of contents is also stored, along with metadata. A software repository is typically managed by source control or repository managers. Package ...

as well as

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

Personal Package Archive Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...

s (PPA). Ubuntu replaced its previous

Ubuntu Software Center Ubuntu Software Center, or simply Software Center, is a discontinued high-level graphical front end for the APT/dpkg package management system. It is free software written in Python, PyGTK/ PyGObject based on GTK. The program was created ...

program with GNOME Software starting with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, and re-branded it as "Ubuntu Software". It also supports

fwupd fwupd is an open-source daemon for managing the installation of firmware updates on Linux-based systems, developed by GNOME maintainer Richard Hughes. It is designed primarily for servicing the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firm ...

for servicing of system firmware. GNOME Software removed Snap support in July 2019, due to code quality issues, lack of integration (specifically, the user can't tell what snap is doing after they click "install" and that it generally ignores GNOME's settings), and the fact that it competes with the GNOME-supported

Flatpak Flatpak, formerly known as xdg-app, is a utility for software deployment and package management for Linux. It is advertised as offering a sandbox environment in which users can run application software in isolation from the rest of the system. ...

standard.

Features

The goals and use cases that GNOME Software targets as of November 2020: ;Primary goals * Allow people to find apps by browsing or search: ** a specific app that they're looking for, or ** apps in a particular category, or with particular functionality that they require * Allow people to effectively inspect and appraise apps before they install them (screenshots, descriptions, ratings, comments, metadata) * Allow people to view which apps are installed and remove them * Present a positive view of the app ecosystem ** Reinforce the sense that there are lots of high quality apps ** Encourage people to engage with that ecosystem, both as users and as contributors ** When browsing, present and promote the best apps that are available ** Facilitate accidental discovery of great apps * Handle software updates. Make software updates as little work for users as possible. To include: apps, OS updates (PackageKit, eos, rpm-ostree), firmware * Support multiple software repositories, defined by both the distributor and users. ** Show which repos are configured. Allow them to be added/removed. ** Handle cases where the same app can be installed from multiple sources. ;Secondary goals * OS upgrades * Hardware driver installation * Input method installation * Respond to application queries for software (apps, codecs, languages) * Offline and metered connections * OS updates end of life * App end of life ;Non-goals * Not a package manager front-end * Not all repos are equal * Not all apps are equal

References

External links

Free software programmed in C GNOME Core Applications Package management software that uses GTK Software that uses Meson Software update managers {{GNOME-stub

Features

See also

References

External links