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I have a question regarding the moderation needs of stores: why exactly do we need stores for mobile devices, whereas we don't have any store or moderation for

I have a question regarding the moderation needs of stores: why exactly do we need stores for mobile devices, whereas we don't have any store or moderation for installing application on computers, or visiting websites? Except various edge cases, you can technically visit any website that is served from any server, or you can install any application that has the correct binaries for your platform. What makes mobile devices different in this regard?

zests 6y ago
A walled garden is a plus for most consumers. Especially non-technical consumers who want to download something and be sure it's not spyware that will brick their phone. If you want to be able to install anything you can buy a pinephone but I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. Apple offers a walled garden as an offering to i-device users. Other companies try to mimic Apple's success. Mobile devices simply do not have the same "must be able to install anything" requirements that a standard computer has.
- amelius 6y ago
  > If you want to be able to install anything you can buy a pinephone but I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. If an application is properly sandboxed, and I can fully control the permissions of that sandbox, then I see no problems with that.
- MayeulC 6y ago
  > I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. It's actually fun to do "apk add audacity" (yeah, there's also multiple gui frontends...) and have it installed and working as well as on desktop. OK, that one uses a traditional desktop interface, but it is still usable. Plug it into a docking station and use a mouse and keyboard + screen if you prefer. Okay, that's not really sideloading, especially as each distro has its packaging format. You can use flatpaks for this (and they are sandboxes), some CIs provide builds as flatpaks (KDE does this). One issue is that Linux executables are still very much architecture-dependent.
  - zests 6y ago
    If you take off the linux hobbyist blinders you will see that having to type in "apk add audacity" and getting a mobile unusable interface is a non-starter for 99% of people. Compare that to the experience of typing in to a search bar that loads suggestions and gives results with pictures and ratings and descriptions. I like the pinephone and am going to buy one myself but I'm buying it because of linux reasons, not because I actually think it will be a good daily driver.
    - MayeulC 6y ago
      Of course I have blinders on. Of course it isn't for 98% of people. 1. I did say it was usable, I am pretty sure most people could use it, although it wouldn't be a great pleasure (an personally I loathe these "addictive" mobile interfaces). One could get real work done with it. 2. I did say there was a gui for this. You don't have to type that if you don't want to. There are multiple gui front-ends with categories, descriptions, screenshots, ratings, etc. Courtesy of appstream metadata and packagekit, that both abstract away platform-specific package manager subtleties and provide "modern" store metadata. 3. This way a contrived example, there are simpler tools if all you want is record & play back. 4. "fun" is very subjective, that was part of my point. Oh, and while we're on it, most distribution repositories are in fact walled gardens with a curated software selection (the audacity example above is part of it). That doesn't prevent you from sideloading whatever you want.
deleted 6y ago
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amelius 6y ago
> I have a question regarding the moderation needs of stores Moderation is orthogonal to stores. We don't need stores. Some people might need filters. And multiple filters could exist for different audiences (children, grandmas who lack computer knowledge, etc.)
villasv 6y ago
App stores exist on mobile because they're good business for who controls them. They need moderation because stores comes with policies.

zests 6y ago

A walled garden is a plus for most consumers. Especially non-technical consumers who want to download something and be sure it's not spyware that will brick their phone. If you want to be able to install anything you can buy a pinephone but I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. Apple offers a walled garden as an offering to i-device users. Other companies try to mimic Apple's success. Mobile devices simply do not have the same "must be able to install anything" requirements that a standard computer has.

amelius 6y ago
> If you want to be able to install anything you can buy a pinephone but I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. If an application is properly sandboxed, and I can fully control the permissions of that sandbox, then I see no problems with that.
MayeulC 6y ago
> I can't imagine it would be fun to install anything on a pinephone. It's actually fun to do "apk add audacity" (yeah, there's also multiple gui frontends...) and have it installed and working as well as on desktop. OK, that one uses a traditional desktop interface, but it is still usable. Plug it into a docking station and use a mouse and keyboard + screen if you prefer. Okay, that's not really sideloading, especially as each distro has its packaging format. You can use flatpaks for this (and they are sandboxes), some CIs provide builds as flatpaks (KDE does this). One issue is that Linux executables are still very much architecture-dependent.
- zests 6y ago
  If you take off the linux hobbyist blinders you will see that having to type in "apk add audacity" and getting a mobile unusable interface is a non-starter for 99% of people. Compare that to the experience of typing in to a search bar that loads suggestions and gives results with pictures and ratings and descriptions. I like the pinephone and am going to buy one myself but I'm buying it because of linux reasons, not because I actually think it will be a good daily driver.
  - MayeulC 6y ago
    Of course I have blinders on. Of course it isn't for 98% of people. 1. I did say it was usable, I am pretty sure most people could use it, although it wouldn't be a great pleasure (an personally I loathe these "addictive" mobile interfaces). One could get real work done with it. 2. I did say there was a gui for this. You don't have to type that if you don't want to. There are multiple gui front-ends with categories, descriptions, screenshots, ratings, etc. Courtesy of appstream metadata and packagekit, that both abstract away platform-specific package manager subtleties and provide "modern" store metadata. 3. This way a contrived example, there are simpler tools if all you want is record & play back. 4. "fun" is very subjective, that was part of my point. Oh, and while we're on it, most distribution repositories are in fact walled gardens with a curated software selection (the audacity example above is part of it). That doesn't prevent you from sideloading whatever you want.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

amelius 6y ago

> I have a question regarding the moderation needs of stores Moderation is orthogonal to stores. We don't need stores. Some people might need filters. And multiple filters could exist for different audiences (children, grandmas who lack computer knowledge, etc.)

villasv 6y ago

App stores exist on mobile because they're good business for who controls them. They need moderation because stores comes with policies.