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I think getting software across different operating systems should be normalized
I believe that the way that users get, and developers distribute, software across different operating systems defines how the platforms cooperate with each other. Moreover I think that how it works today, i.e. on each platform we use both different store and different installation interface, in my opinion, exacerbates an isolation between them, makes it difficult for users with different OSes to cooperate and causes that they focus on choosing a suitable software, rather than on the job they have to do itself.
From my point of view, if we would normalize it - the way we get (and distribute) software, we would blur the line between operating systems and would create one, general environment for working (and playing), where operating systems are just interfaces defining how we feel the environment and not (like it is now with apps that work on some OSes and do not on others) whether we can even be part of it.
And even though the subject of these considerations is not making all apps crossplatform now, I think we could talk about a general space with software, one for all operating systems, which gathers and lists software for all of them, where one can search for apps available on all desired ones.
I see it as a place which one enable to discover and buy apps, but when it comes to installation - redirects to proper installation interfaces (you can learn more about a prototype of such a solution here https://www.producthunt.com/post...). This way it enables to find software available on all operating systems we use, treats official app stores just as installation interfaces and creates the mentioned open, general environment.
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Alina Ihnatiuk
Interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing!
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@antonovna, it would be great to hear yours! Do you see any sensitive points worth of attention, working on normalizing the process?
Every system has a different archtecture, maybe this is the reason why. What can be unified it's already unified. What do you have in your mind?
@bogomep, I updated my statement, please take a look.
Answering your question, I am aware of the different architectures and believe it is right that each system has its own installation interface - like App Store or Microsoft Store. The point I focus on is that we could treat it just so - as an interface for installing software and use one, general, open to all operating systems place for searching and buying software, something like this one - https://www.producthunt.com/post...
@raubo so you are more talking about a way to discover software. got it! Something like API discovery protocol, but for apps.
@bogomep, exactly! Maybe that would be something like a web search engine, maybe like the web itself.
@bogomep, when I think about this matter, seeing this place, like you noticed, as kind of a protocol, in my opinion it should be open, general and ultimate - so free of charge. At least for users. Having this in mind, the place where I want to look money for is selling apps by developers and commission from that.
But how would YOU do this? What could you pay money for?
@reuben_carter, right, but note that browsing the web today is almost completely tied to search engines like DuckDuckGo or Google, which are kind of its interface. Searching for, buying and installing apps using the interfaces works, that's true, but maybe it is possible to create a better solution - a different one, just for software.
Isn't Linux at the core of most operating systems? Then why can't we build software that can work across various systems?
@alexandra_kazakova2, well, that's not entirely true. Like @bogomep said, Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android - they are different operating systems with different architectures, so this is not possible to build such a software per se. What one need to be done, to run one app on a few operating systems, is adjusting its code to a particular architecture.
So, since there already are apps that work across various systems (what is achieved by adjusting their code to particular ones), and there also are people who work on making building crossplatform apps easier, I believe that we should, in the same time, focus on creating a platform that gathers the already crossplatform apps in one place, enabling, this way, users to find such software and then, when we have software for various systems in one place, it turns out that we already can seamlessly work across different operating systems, the line between them is already blurred and the systems already cooperates. That is the point.
