I find the state of the KDE store and Pling deplorable; it’s even driving KDE users away. Is there a project to change platforms or improve Pling?
I’d say ‘unfortunate’. I think it’s great when it works and unfortunate when it fails.
It’s still streets ahead for getting extra content (regardless of the actual quality - it can’t all be curated) to be available, compared with ‘spices’ on Cinnamon as it was when I first switched to Plasma (though that was quite a while ago).
I’m not sure it is driving users away in any meaningful numbers, and many users appreciate it whilst acknowledging that it doesn’t always work as expected.
But yes, news about potential improvements in this field would be interesting to hear.
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I remember a discussion a while ago about its possible improvement; suggestions for some filtering of those who passed some quality check etc. but it seems there’s no progress in practice yet.
There are so many issues; for example, I wonder how a theme that was uploaded years ago can be listed on the first page of the latest themes without some cheating, which shouldn’t be allowed.
At the moment users only have ratings and number of downloads to give them an idea about whether it’s worth trying or it’s obsolete, broken, and even rubbish.
I don’t think it drives users away from KDE Plasma, but it may be drawing many away from KDE Store.
Still it serves a good purpose for many, but I agree that there’s an increasing need for enhanced management - if only enough resources can be made available for this purpose.
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My bing issue with the store is the fact that over half do not have their items setup to install straight from the store, rather it’s in the browser or the standalone app. The later of which can cause issue on ones system cause it’s so out dated.
It would be so great if we had an automated system that checked every item if it’s installable simply with a click straight from within KDE Plasma (Panels / System Settings : Get New…), and do work as expected, and only such items were made available directly within KDE Plasma, while all the rest were kept separately, in another part of the store, only available on the website under a section named “Beta”, “Waiting List” etc.
I t would be nice if the creators took the extra step of making the all the items installable from the store like they should.
@User110350, that’s solely possible for very basic software that doesn’t rely upon new versions of libraries. A dedicated package manager is inherently required to ensure that such software is compatible with the OS, so most software isn’t suitable for such a distribution method, and never shall be.
Don’t ever speak like that.
All these issues have one answer: Get involved.
People must stop thinking of KDE as a company. It is not and never will be. And you really don’t want it to be, as that alternative is way worse than anything you are “suffering” right now.
KDE is a community run be volunteers and, if nothing has been improved in the store, it is because or there are no resources, or currently there are no active volunteers working on this (usually because they are contributing elsewhere—i.e. there are no resources).
The solution is becoming a volunteer yourself, and, as it is affecting you, you can take charge and make the changes you need.
That said, the kde.store is not directly run by KDE, but by https://www.pling.com, but we do have say and we can put you in touch with the people who run the store and you can help with culling the good stuff and removing the bad stuff.
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Whatever your circumstances, there is no need to take it out on others, Please remember the CoC. To guarantee a civil and constructive conversation, everybody has to abide by it.
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I know, you tell me that all the time.
Since the first time you told me, I’ve already learned C++, and for the past two weeks, I’ve been learning Qt.
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@User110350, I’m advising you, so that you aren’t penalised for being rude to others.
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I tell everyone all the time as soon as a I catch a whiff of entitlement. And I do so because it is true: KDE puts the power into the users’ hands—into your hands. By using Free Software, because it is Free Software, that is, Public Software, you assume responsibilities: you protect it, you contribute to it, you don’t be an entitled prat about it.
Otherwise you have the alternative, where you assume no responsibilities, but you don’t have any power or rights either. It is your choice.
If you choose to take on FLOSS, remember that people have gone the mile for you and have made the responsibility easy to assume. Now it is your turn.
This is where the warning comes in… because these are not official creators…
I generated a cursor theme and threw it up there… it suited me at the time, but I got complaints it wasn’t a ‘complete’ theme, as it only had one cursor size for my screen, sharing mostly with people using the official Manjaro (dark) colours.
What I tend to object to more are the armies of bot like anime devs who upload dozens of those annoying little anime cursor packs, and threaten to completely drown out other content.
So the ‘points’ system should be revamped… Ratings => points which should evaporate on a weekly or monthly basis if no interest or ratings are indicated… so a community up/downvote mechanism.
From there, some moderation with a ‘report issue’ for each entry. When you find something that’s broken, or inactive and with no downloads, then there should be a ‘report issue’ button under the rating.
So we need to login whenever we visit (and if using Plasma, be given the option to vote there…)
Some days, the ‘new stuff’ shows pages and pages of these ports:
In the end, it’s up to US to sort it out, and to ask the KDE team to help us find ways of doing this - and if it’s too obscure, to make it a bit easier.
Given the number of users of Plasma, the number of comments/votes on these items is really pitiful… and it’s an example where the GUI access tends to have us simply leeching, without giving any feedback at all… but then complaining that it’s not very good.
Not sure if there’s a better solution than to scrap the ‘new things’ window and have ‘get new stuff’ simply open the browser instead…
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In two years, maybe I’ll be able to participate.
Just getting the fundamental functionality of the site better would make it good enough for the time being.
Like the major email providers blocking is understandable, It can be dealt with, at least I dealt with it, and after signing up the waiting period was also a bit too long, but that’s not the core problem.
The problem really is the structure of the site, it does need better system for sorting, better system and UI for top popular items with filters like in a week, a month, this update etc.
And most importantly, the Favorited item should be easily accessible, the favorites button is broken in profiles menu, which makes it very hard to go back to the items we wanna visit again. It’s like a library of liked stuff, and its hard to access.
Fixing the fundamental functionality first will go a long long way, and then more complex stuff like moderation and on-site notifications/messages can be dealt with afterwards.
That said, I’m new to it, and I do not understand the background of all this stuff, I’m just putting out a perspective of a new interested user, who went on and dealt with stuff to access the site fully…
not everyone will go and open a new email account with very unknown providers and such to just access to community and customization and stuff, thats a big ask
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Is the pling store actively maintained? Last time i went on there it seemed kinda broken, and all the stuff on there looked super old. Also I can’t find any sources for the Pling store website, not sure if i am just not looking hard enough though. Is the store even open source?
On the topic of driving users away, i honestly don’t think most users even go onto the pling store at all
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It’s a tricky one, because of the vast variety of software available on the site, the vast scope, and the fact that any old junk can be uploaded there.
Certainly some level of review (moderation) - so that if I click to install icons, and they don’t install, I can report it right there without needing to search for repos (if they exist).
It seems fair that Pling is just a user repository - with much lower levels of trust than a repository.
But bringing it into the UI is different - what’s available in the UI (even with a warning) will be misinterpreted by users as ‘part of KDE’ and ‘Official’.
I’m curious if the GUI browsing should not be scrapped, preferring a link instead to the relevant part of the website…
At least then it is disengaged from ‘The Official KDE Experience™’.
I am not sure what would be best here. It is clearly a less than optimal situation.
I also feel that the Pling / OpenDesktop page most of the times stands in the middle between the KDE interface and the source code repository (be it on GitLab, GitHub, or other git hosting).
At this point, I would prefer a community-maintained index tracked on a git hosting service. This way, there could be even more than one index that the user could fetch/update at will. Inclusion/exclusion from the index would occur via merge/pull requests. Non-indexed repositories could still be added manually. It would be clear to the user that they are loading an external repository.
This would prevent depending on a single third party service. It will be hard to maintain user ratings, but I am not sure they are useful at all right now.
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All extensions that you download are installed via pling, even themes.
Most people i know don’t download themes at all, or if they do they just download it from the theme’s Github or whatever source hosting platform. That also seems to be the general standard for other DE’s /WM’s. And honestly last time i tried to use the built in KDE ui for the pling store it just didn’t work and i used the website instead
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