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Ubuntu wants to bring applications to users faster
by admin ·
The Ubuntu team is planning to automate the upload of applications by developers largely because the review team is now overloaded. For the safety of those not tested software manually should ensure AppArmor.
After Ubuntu had introduced the software center, it was also allows external developers to build their applications (for Ubuntu consistently referred to as apps) in the Software Center upload. Before activation but there is a manual review of the app, which, according to a notice from David Planella now leads increasingly to frustration because of the great interest of the developers, as well as on Ubuntu App Showdown read, was the review team is overloaded. Weeks of delays are the result.
Uploads to the Software Center is so popular because it allows app developers, the latest versions relatively quickly bring to the users. The alternative way to package the software for Ubuntu leads, initially on the development version of Ubuntu (or Debian) and to be included in the next official version of Ubuntu. Available at the time of the Ubuntu application has already be outdated. In extreme cases, it is an app that was written for a specific event, and is no longer needed after the event.
The Ubuntu team to Jono Bacon, Michael Hall and David Planella sees it as absolutely necessary to relieve the review team to accelerate the introduction of apps significantly. There now have a draft of the new upload process presents for app developers. The aim of the draft is a process by which developers can upload their apps “directly in Ubuntu,” without compromising the security and stability of the system. The key to this automated testing for basic items and AppArmor rules that restrict the rights of the apps.
While so far the apps are usually installed in / opt, Ubuntu sees some problems and wants to ensure that future apps will be installed under / usr as the native components. Any name conflicts are avoided in advance by tests on an upload server.
One of the key points in the app offer is security. So far, should the manual review process to ensure that Trojan, malware and other problematic software were excluded from the Software Center. The new process will significantly reduce manual work and consist of six steps. In the first step, the developer creates the package for its app, which is supported by tools such as Quickly and pkgme. Then the developer must apply for the inclusion of his app, for which he must prove that he owns the rights to the app, and an official representative of the project or the company. In the third step, the developer via the form to specify the required resources of the app, which is used for automatic generation of AppArmor rules. Now the app can be uploaded, whereupon an automatic checking, whether it corresponds to the packaging and safety rules. After this procedure was executed once and the app is available in the Software Center, the developer can upload new versions without fuss. The Software Center will coming from outside developers apps are clearly marked to make clear that Ubuntu is not or only partially responsible for these apps is.
The plan of Ubuntu provides initially allow only packaged apps for uploading. Later, it will be the developers made even easier by also tarballs or PPA repositories are allowed. The specification that is not yet finished, explains the points mentioned in detail. It contains specific dates yet.
Tags: applications, faster, Ubuntu, users