Some Ubuntu fans out there may remember Automatix, a tool for Ubuntu that allowed easy access to many popular non-free applications and commonly-used audio and video codecs. It debuted a few years ago, and got negative reviews from Ubuntu developers and experienced users due to the risk of breaking dependencies, but it offered an easy solution for beginners who weren't familiar with the way deb packages worked. Automatix was discontinued in March, when its developers moved on to other projects. Now gnome-app-install hopes to continue where Automatix left off.
gnome-app-install has been included in all recent Ubuntu installations, and is easily installable on Debian systems. All architectures included in the distribution are supported. Linux newcomers will be pleased to know that installation of gnome-app-install is performed automatically by the Ubuntu installer -- it doesn't require the use of terminal commands. An icon for gnome-app-install will be visible in your GNOME applications menu as 'Add/Remove...'.
If you've used Automatix, the interface will look familiar. Like Automatix, the software list is broken down by categories, such as Games, Internet, Graphics, Multimedia, and more. Each category contains many options. To install software using this tool, browse through the lists, check off everything you would like to have set up, and click "Apply Changes." gnome-app-install takes care of the rest by downloading the selected software and all dependencies.
When first attempting to install some types of applications, you must accept the license agreement, because some applications and codecs that it installs are not legal in all parts of the world. It's up to you to be aware of the laws in your country. gnome-app-install developers take no responsibility for any lawbreaking you do with their software.
There are more applications available through gnome-app-install than it is feasible to list in one article. However, some of my favorites include VLC multimedia player, and Anjuta for development. In addition, the Games menu contains quite a few of my favorites, such as Frozen Bubble, Neverball, Wesnoth, Bzflag, and many more.
gnome-app-install gets even better. For those who use Ubuntu and would like to experiment with other flavors of the distro, you can use gnome-app-install to install Edubuntu and Kubuntu as well. If you want additional tools to administer your system, you can use gnome-app-install to install Bootup Manager (BUM) and Sysinfo. You don't need to use it to set up things such as NTFS support -- they are already included in the default Ubuntu installation.
gnome-app-install also takes care of uninstalling applications that are no longer needed, and even goes as far as to remove the unneeded dependencies as well.
There's not much to dislike in gnome-app-install. Yet, with thousands of great Linux applications out there, it goes without saying that it can't possibly include all of them. A few noteworthy apps that are missing are the Google Earth and Ubuntu Tweak.
For advanced users, there isn't much benefit here -- most pros already know how to install any applications they want on their own. But, even so, they may still appreciate the convenience of having them all available in one place.
Finally, I had already installed some of the applications gnome-app-install offers, yet there are no uninstallation options for those programs, only for ones that I installed through the tool or other dpkg frontends. It would be nice if gnome-app-install recognized that those programs were already installed through another mechanism, and gave me me an uninstall option for them.
The real value of gnome-app-install is in making the Linux experience easier for new users, and any steps taken to ease the transition into the Linux world is definitely welcome. Time will tell, however, if gnome-app-install will also inherit the controversy that surrounded Automatix or even if it will be as popular. The former is unlikely -- it was written entirely independently, and has a much more robust foundation. Still, all in all, this is a great application -- and an easy way to install some of the most popular programs that Linux has to offer. And, best of all, in my tests, gnome-app-install did everything it was supposed to do without a single hiccup.