> Lite Software offers a seemingly curated, de-mystified list of
> "popular" apps and other installs.
> https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/software.html#installsoftware

Yes, it is based on manual curation.  The source code contains a hard
coded list of applications to recommend.[1]  Much of it is proprietary
(Skype, Steam, etc.).  In order to use this for Trisquel we would need
to create and maintain our own list of applications to recommend.  I'm
not necessarily against this, but it would be a break from the way we've
done things.  gnome-app-install uses data automatically extracted from
.desktop files, rather than data compiled manually, and while
applications can be sorted by popularity, we do not otherwise select
specific applications to recommend.

> And what about ElementaryOS?  It's also Ubuntu based, and while the
> Pantheon desktop environment is tightly integrated across the OS, it's
> at least based on GNOME just as MATE is.  And its App Center
> (selection visible at https://appcenter.elementary.io/) combines Apple
> like slickness with a "pay what you want" style that doesn't
> necessarily undermine an ethic of sharing but does easily enable
> direct user support for developers and projects.  Once and if ported,
> this may reduce the workload and debates associated with a tightly
> restricted and curated list of apps such as in Lite Software.

This appears to use appstream data to generate a list of applications
from the distro's repositories, rather than manual curation, so this is
more similar to gnome-software and gnome-app-install in its approach.
I'm not necessarily against the "pay what you want" feature, as long is
it is presented in a transparent way.  The applications the user would
be installing are packaged in Trisquel's repository.  They are not
receiving a license or a copy directly from the developer, so it would
be misleading to frame a payment to the developer as a transaction.
Something like a "donate" button would be fine with me, though.

I'm having a pretty busy week, but when I have a chance I'll try out
Elementary's AppCenter to see whether it might be suitable.  Thanks for
the suggestion.

[1]
https://gitlab.com/linuxlite/litesoftware/blob/master/litesoftware_4.0-0050-linuxlite/usr/bin/lite-software

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