Why don't we get an App store?

[Arkhan]

underground arcade will happen!  all it'll take is a few solid games, a nice forum, and crossed fingers!!!


I intend to be part of the solid - games, part of the equation.....



and if needed, can assist with the forumy portions.

[SamuraiCrow]

Dont we actually need proper new hardware first? LOL And no im not talking about the AMIGA X1000 /Amiga one/ or some other 3rd party cobbled together half arsed over price/under powered  power pc clone motherboard that comes out so offten.
 
I just wish I had 400 million to start a new amiga corporation and take on Bill Gates..lol we can dream....just imagine a different reality in which Commodore never went bust, windows did'nt take over the world and where in every Office and home sat an AMIGA ....:afro: peace out to all my fellow amigans

There are a few attempts in the works such as the FPGA-Arcade based on the MiniMig and the Natami project.  We'll have to see if either of them take hold on the market.  These are 68k systems with AGA compatibility or better and working their way up!

[ferrellsl]

First, there would have to be some decent apps that Amiga users would want.  And are there any serious Amiga developers still around who write quality apps for Amiga?  What about a decent office suite, some video editing software, and a modern media player?

[persia]

There's probably an app for that...

[BigBenAussie]

An app store is a relatively easy thing to create. That is not a problem.

There are a number of problems in sustaining a viable Amiga software market.
To have a market, which promotes commercial quality software development, we need a larger user base to warrant development costs.
Aminet, OS4Depot, Morphzone and the AROS Archives, while extremely useful and necessary at this point, effectively detract from a commercial app store.
The current AmigaOS4 hardware is too expensive to provide significant growth in the user base.
MorphOS users are only in a slightly better position in terms of hardware accessibility, but will inevitably hit a roadblock with Mac hardware.
AROS users typically want their apps to be not only open source but free.
68k users are in decline, although Minimig and Natami have the potential to hold that steady.
The propensity towards free open source ports limits the viability of new Amiga dedicated software development.

Apps that support all Amiga&alike platforms may be limited to the lowest common denominator, but would have access the the super-set of these user bases.

Taking it further, Apps/games, based on a cross platform toolkit, which aside from Amiga compatibility, can provide executables for iPhone/iPad, Windows, MacOS and Linux have an even greater chance of commercial success by leveraging these larger user bases.

I see a requirement for cross platform software architectures, if a developer is to have any chance of making their development costs back.

I am currently working full time on such a platform agnostic application architecture, but out of necessity, I am focused on those other platforms first.

[ChaosLord]

Kolla, please show me how to upload screenshots to Aminet. The "feature" has indeed been there for quite some time, but as far as I'm aware it has never been implemented, and there is no way to upload a screenshot with your software and readme file.

Don't tell me I'm wrong unless you can prove otherwise.

I agree with Cammy 4096%

[utri007]

There will no be comercial quality programs any time in near future.

But there are lots of hobby programmers who would get some benefit to such a store.

That wouldn't be bad thing. Many of us could pay couple of euros/dollars for usefull software, even if it is not "comercial quality"

That way developers could get more interest to develop their software further.

Realism is allways good thing

[phoenixkonsole]

I repeat : ) We are working on it. Actually its just called app-browser.
You will be able to browse through categories like office,games and so on. You can use it to find free apps too. It will download and install them with one click.

One category is called commercial -> app-store
The appstore will also contain external links to commercial apps.
 

http://aros-exec.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3811&forum=2&post_id=32638#forumpost32638

It will be available for AOS,MOS and AROS.
The idea is to get a centralized market for all Amiga-like systems -> in theory it could lead to new smaller apps for all of us.

For the start there will be AMC and a big surprise.

Be patient : ) First AMC, then big surprise, then app-browser.

Regards,
Pascal

[Lizard]

the one-click install is a bit scary, Amiga os or Morphos doesn't have a 'default' location where software must be installed. I think it will be a nightmare to properly support various platforms.

[jj]

Not really, Because I would assume that the software installs everyhting in a central location no different to steam etc

[ElPolloDiabl]

I think he means: Downloads it and starts the installation process.

[Lizard]

And howto handle shared libs? Version numbers?
What todo when to uninstall and the lib is used by multiple software packages?

If there's an appstore for the amiga, it also would need drm? (yuck)
Otherwise it won't be attractive for developers.

[Hell Labs]

First, there would have to be some decent apps that Amiga users would want.  And are there any serious Amiga developers still around who write quality apps for Amiga?  What about a decent office suite, some video editing software, and a modern media player?

http://www.airsoftsoftwair.de are active commercial amiga devs, but I think that's more because the software will still compile than anything else.

[DyLucke]

The question here is we already have AmigaKit and Vesalia that sell a lot of stuff, but mainly hardware. BUT our problem now is not they can sell some hard and complements.

Our problem is we don't actually have a cheap and competitive platform to buy and develop software for.

On the other hand, AmigaKit and Vesalia shouls reach to an agreement with MorphOS and start selling refurbished MacMinis with MOS installed for a fair price.
Same with the new systems coming soon. Or the ARES Aros System.

And give support to the new systems that are coming up this year or nearby.
Sam440 is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. Nobody bought that, and nobody will at that price.
But refurbished minis with MOS? For a fair price, it's a quite competitive system.
If they sell enough systems, EVENTUALLY they will need a software on their site.

That's my oppinion. Maybe i'm crazy. XD

[persia]

The problem is twofold, Amiga lacks programmers and a good ide.  I can build an complete iPhone/iPad app in the time that it takes me to just get all the library calls right in an Amiga app.  iPhone/IPad development is as close as you can get to "instant gratification" in the software world currently.  It's really in development that the old girl starts to show her age.  

Apple got it right on both ends, the app store is brilliant and so are the XCode tools.

[cgutjahr]

Aminet STILL doesn't have screenshots

Correct. And this won't change anytime soon if everybody who dislikes something about Aminet just runs to the next forum, complains about it and announces his own competing service because Aminet STILL sucks so much.

Having ideas is not the problem, finding the time to implement them is. As it is, we're happy we can keep Aminet running (more or less), everything else is just an afterthought for now.

People with no partnership, no social life, no hobbies and lots of leet PHP skillz please apply for a job at aminet@aminet.net.

Back to topic:

About the last thing the Amiga needs is an "app store". Instead of encouraging more commercialisation - which in our case just means one more round of milking the few remaining enthusiasts - we should encourage more open source development.

If you really want to do something about the way software is distributed on the Amiga, then try to come up with a sensible, Amiga specific concept for a package management system. That is what we need, not yet another website that is asking for my money because I'm expected to "support the Amiga".