Does the Chrome web store suck?

Does the Chrome web store suck?

Google’s Chrome web browser is undeniably one of the most popular browsers around. But are there serious problems with the Chrome web store itself? Some users think that the Chrome web store sucks and that Google needs to do something about it.

The FireRTC blog reports:

To be fair, the Chrome Web Store is not the world’s worst app store. It’s just almost the worst, ranking somewhere between the Blackberry App World and the Windows App Store. But, with some small improvements, it can be significantly better.

The Good

1. Quick, easy to publish

2. Region and language options

The Bad

1. Lots of “apps” that are merely links to websites

2. The relationship between apps and extensions is confusing

3. Apps are difficult to find when installed

4. Poor analytics

5. Stats and ratings update haphazardly

6. Recommendations make no sense

7. Ironically, search sucks

8. Terrible browsing experience

More at the FireRTC Blog

The FireRTC Blog post spawned a reddit thread and Chrome OS redditors shared their thoughts:

Synt: “My biggest gripe is that I can’t use my Google Play credit on things in the Chrome Web Store. Google needs to unify that.”

Im: “I find adding the filter “available offline” tends to weed out the “apps” that are really just websites. If there’s no actual app available, fine offer me websites that can do what I want but pretending a website is an app annoys me to no end.”

Berkough: “This is my biggest gripe. So annoying. Especially now, in the post-NaCl world.”

Mortenlu: “Yep. Pretty hard to disagree with those points. Also, I don’t know if it was a bug recently, but I could not find certain apps (think it was the hangouts app) by searching for the name. Let’s hope we see some improvements soon.”

Rfry11: “I really feel like Google is just going to shutdown the web store and fold it into Google Play with an updated system. It’s how they fix anything.”

Brokedown: “I don’t have any trouble finding my Chrome apps on my Linux desktops. They show up in the system menu under “Chrome Apps”.”

Jotebe: “All great points. The search is the worst for me personally. On an aside, I’m glad you linked this blog. This app sounds excellent and I’m surprised I haven’t heard of it.”

Vegan: “So the part I’m not clear on is why Google said (over a year ago now) that they are going to make Android apps playable on chrome OS but we still are not seeing that. There is like 8 available. How long am I expected to wait without being frustrated?”

Zirzo: “About searching for an app/extension; you would be way better off searching the name+chrome in google than in the chrome web store.”

More at Reddit

Wine 1.7.48 offers better support for Windows games and apps

Wine has long been a useful tool for Linux users that want to run Windows games and apps. And now version 1.7.48 of Wine offers an even better experience.

Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia:

On July 28, Alexandre Julliard had the pleasure of announcing the immediate availability for download and testing of a new snapshot of the 1.7 unstable branch of one of the world’s most popular open-source projects, Wine.

Highlights of Wine 1.7.48, which is a development release, include better support for the OpenMP implementation, more support for OpenGL core contexts, support for pixel snapping in DirectWrite, as well as I/O stream support in the MSVCIRT C++ runtime.

Of course, there are also numerous fixes in Wine 1.7.48, for Windows programs like EssentialPIM, Notepad, FormatFactory, P2kCommander, Internet Explorer, Magnus 2011, Collectorz.com Movie Collector v9.x, FoxitReader 3.0, GTA2 Manager, NeXTA, Starcraft Campaign Editor, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

…Wine 1.7.48 adds patches for numerous Windows games, among which we can mention Sid Meier’s Railroads Demo, Achtung die Kurve, Quake III Arena, Chernobyl Terrorist Attack Demo, The Endless Forest 3, Starlaxis, Tesla: The Weather Man Demo, and Gothic 3 Demo.

More at Softpedia

KDE unleashes Plasma Mobile Linux OS for phones

Mobile is all the rage these days, and the KDE developers have been busy working on the Plasma Mobile Linux OS for phones. Plasma Mobile has finally been unveiled and should help Linux gain a foothold in the mobile arena.

Chris Hoffman reports for PC World:

Unveiled at KDE’s annual Akademy world summit, the KDE project pitches Plasma Mobile is unique—different from both the dominant mobile operating systems and even different from Ubuntu for phones.

Plasma Mobile is entirely free and open-source software, and the announcement argues the benefits of that. It can be distributed, modified, and re-used with no restrictions. It’s developed with an open development process anyone can get involved in. It’s privacy-focused, and you can choose “services from trusted sources” instead of relying on the ones the operating system developer chooses for you.

Unlike Ubuntu for phones, Plasma Mobile is trying to support as many different types of apps as possible. It “is designed as an inclusive system, intended to support all kinds of apps.” Native apps can be written in QT, KDE’s toolkit of choice. But Plasma Mobile will also support GTK apps, Ubuntu Touch apps, Sailfish OS apps, and even Android apps.

…Plasma Mobile looks promising. Linux offers many different desktop environments—it’s only fitting that there should be multiple competing interfaces for smartphones and other touch devices, too. The KDE community has had their eyes on convergence for a long time, so it’s good to see it jumping back into the ring.

More at PC World

Here’s a peek at Plasma Mobile:

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