Old Links to Store Still Fail

[Sharon]

While looking for a suitable available and working program / software / APPlications Shop/Store I came across several errors, but most prominent, so far is:

The FAQ question Do you have an app store? was asked and added in the long FAQ .
The answer is “Yes” at the same link but also contains another link to “Software” which goes to another page at Phriction > PureOS > Wiki PureOS > Software Center that says

Document Deleted

This document has been deleted. You can edit it to put new content here, or use history to revert to an earlier version.
and that has the dubious heading of:

“PureOS Tracker”?? I know it’s not a confession, but … “PuresOS Tracker”?? Yoiks!

This leads me to say where in blazes is the Store or whatever it’s called, that I saw fast loading of a larger list of software, programs, or apps suitable for PureOS?

The OLD store seen below opens but what you see is all that it does. The categories are all empty / do not load. Tried several times, each time a different day, time and categories.

I saw a much faster, and better listing via Windows desktop the other day, but lost track of it. Another 4 hours of looking for it and still can’t find it.

Anyone?

TIA
~s

[gondolyr]

The FAQ question Do you have an app store? was asked and added in the long FAQ .
The answer is “Yes” at the same link but also contains another link to “Software” which goes to another page at Phriction > PureOS > Wiki PureOS > Software Center that says […]

There are a number of pages on the puri.sm website that haven’t been updated or check in years now.

The PureOS app store is the “PureOS Store” app. There are some pages dedicated to app curation in their documentation and in the Librem 5 wiki, however, these pages have not been maintained in years and are outdated and inaccurate.

If you are looking for app reviews for how well apps fit on PureOS (or other distro) for the Librem 5, I would currently recommend LinuxPhoneApps.org as a source of Linux app review for how well they work on mobile Linux.

and that has the dubious heading of:

“PureOS Tracker”?? I know it’s not a confession, but … “PuresOS Tracker”?? Yoiks!

Purism used to use a piece of software called Phabricator to track issues, bugs, and other tasks. They have since moved to using GitLab for their issue tracking. The term “tracking” here has nothing to do with spying and is commonly used in software development.

This leads me to say where in blazes is the Store or whatever it’s called, that I saw fast loading of a larger list of software, programs, or apps suitable for PureOS?

With regards to the larger list of software, I am making a guess about this and believe you may be thinking of Flathub, which needs to be manually configured on PureOS since PureOS uses their own Flatpak repository by default.

[FranklyFlawless]

I already mentioned about Flathub over a year ago:

The travails of updating and reflashing

You can add the Flathub repository to see more updated apps than what the default pureos-store has: flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo Restart your phone after, then open the PureOS Store.

Apparently, it did not work for @Sharon.

[amarok]

@Sharon

The categories are all empty / do not load.

And what happens when you click on the Updates tab and apply those waiting updates indicated by the blue dot?

[JR-Fi]

Separate thing. I can confirm that the PureOS Store app does not load anything on the categories. It’s been almost useless for years. The update tab it can handle the few old app updates that aren’t done via apt - unless it crashes and needs to be killed and re-started.

[amarok]

The store app always works for me, for some reason. I wonder what causes the malfunction for some/many units.

[JR-Fi]

That is curious. As it’s been griped about on the forum for years with very little pushback, I’ve come to take it as granted that it will never be fixed and will always be a broken toy.

[amarok]

Tabs load in 6 to 8 seconds for me. (Some might take longer if the category has to display a lot of applications.)

[JR-Fi]

Only 8 seconds? Lucky. We have to draw the applications to the screen - it’s hard to erase the markings fast enough when scrolling…

Well, reloading or re-installing hasn’t helped and there’s plenty of bandwidth for other things, so I’ve got no idea what’s going on.

[amarok]

I should note that I don’t use flatpaks, which maybe (?) allows the repo to load more easily. Just guessing, though. I also enable “incompatible” applications, so I can search and try various ones.

[amarok]

@Sharon

I saw a much faster, and better listing via Windows desktop the other day, but lost track of it. Another 4 hours of looking for it and still can’t find it.

Overview - PureOS Software

[Sharon]

@gondolyr

They have since moved to using GitLab for their issue tracking. The term “tracking” here has nothing to do with spying and is commonly used in software development.

Maybe I should have just said ‘odd how that word can have two meanings like that’ only my bad attempt at humour failed. Sorry.

[ASwyD2]

@amarok

I should note that I don’t use flatpaks,

@amarok

[amarok]

@ASwyD2

Yeah…

[ASwyD2]

It looks like you have a couple of flatpaks installed

[Privacy2]

I believe they meant to say that they “don’t use flathub”.

And they pointed out that this fact might be the reason why they were able to load the “Pure OS Store”. i.e. Perhaps the Pure OS Store overloaded (or had some other issue) in regard to listing the inventory/choices on flathub.

[amarok]

I don’t use Flathub and don’t install flatpaks… or at least I haven’t kept them, if I happen to have tested some in the past.

(I’m a “he,” by the way, although I don’t mind being called a “they.”)

[Sharon]

@amarok

And what happens when you click on the Updates tab and apply those waiting updates indicated by the blue dot?

The screen changes and at the top is the spinner beside “Checking…” and just keeps, well, spinning.
Top of screen says

Checking...

Loading Updates…
This could take a while…

Wish they’ed define “a while” because it’s been 20 minutes now.

It’s between like this for a very long time - for me any way.

A little further afield, when I click “Parental Controls” icon on desktop the screen turns to Debian blue and just sits there. 5 minutes is long enough to wait for the too.

[amarok]

Although it might not help with the PureOS Software app issue, I would get those updates installed just to bring everything up to date (and secure).

Go to the Terminal app and type or paste this:

sudo apt update

Then hit the Enter key.

After that finds all the waiting updates, do this:

sudo apt upgrade

and Enter.

You might also do this:

flatpak update

and Enter.

I would also do a restart after all that finishes.

[irvinewade]

@amarok

I should note that I don’t use flatpaks, which maybe (?) allows the repo to load more easily. Just guessing, though.

I don’t think this answers it. I don’t have flat anything other than what might be default after a clean byzantium reflash, and the PureOS Store GUI has always been somewhat flaky for me. That doesn’t bother me - and that’s probably part of the problem: the typical user is more technical and doesn’t mind installing from shell, and likewise therefore the typical user isn’t motivated to troubleshoot this.