Robert McQueen, head of the GNOME Foundation, has published a development plan for Flathub, a catalog and repository of self-contained packages in the Flatpak format. Flathub is positioned as an independent platform for building applications and directly distributing them to end users, regardless of individual vendors. Currently, approximately 2000 applications are available in the Flathub catalog, with over 1500 contributors involved in their maintenance. About 700,000 application downloads are recorded daily, and around 900 million requests to the site are processed.
The key tasks for the further development of the project include evolving Flathub from a build service into an application catalog-store, creating an ecosystem for the distribution of Linux applications that takes into account the interests of various participants and projects. Significant attention is being paid to increasing participant motivation and funding for the projects listed in the catalog. Plans include implementing donation systems, application sales, and organizing subscription services (recurring donations). According to Robert McQueen, the greatest obstacle to promoting and developing the Linux desktop is the economic factor, and introducing a donation and application sales system will help stimulate ecosystem growth.
Among the plans is also the establishment of an independent organization to support and provide legal assistance for Flathub. Currently, the project is overseen by the GNOME Foundation, but continuing under its umbrella has been recognized as introducing additional risks associated with application delivery services. Furthermore, the funding services being created for Flathub do not align with the non-profit status of the GNOME Foundation. The new organization intends to adopt a transparent decision-making management model, with representatives from GNOME, KDE, and community members included in the governing board.
In addition to the leader of the GNOME Foundation, the Flathub promotion project involves Neil McGovern, former leader of the Debian project, and Aleix Pol, president of the KDE e.V. organization. The Endless Network allocated $100,000 for the development of Flathub, and the total funding for 2023 is expected to reach $250,000, which will support two full-time developers.
The work done or currently being implemented includes testing a new design for the Flathub website, the implementation of an access and verification system to confirm that applications are uploaded directly by their developers, separating accounts for users and developers, a labeling system to identify verified and free applications, processing donations and payments through the Stripe financial service, a system for paid users to access paid downloads, and allowing only verified developers with access to the main repositories to upload and sell applications, which will help block third parties unrelated to the development who are trying to profit from selling builds of popular open-source programs.
Source: opennet.ru
