Ask HN: An Open Standard for App Distribution: Beating Apple and Google Duopoly?

[julienreszka]

Do you believe there is a place for this kind of standard and if so why hasn't it been done before?

I know people like Tim Sweeney, Daniel Ek and David Heinemeier Hansson have been vocal about the current state of affairs and have seeked help from regulators to get antitrust laws passed. It did have some mild successes.

Maybe making an open standard would yield better results?

[kaaaate]

I developed a custom (open-source, under AGPLv3) solution at my first job for a centralized software distribution system.

The entire thing was written in C# with ASP.NET Core for the server, and (sorry) WinForms for the Admin Panel and the launcher. And it integrated quite nicely with the authentication for the web application that was being developed. At one point I was thinking of LDAP support, but I left that job before I could implement it. It has a fully functional license key system (no DRM, gotta implement that yourself), branching, and an announcement system.

As far as I know, it's still running and fully functional after leaving a year ago, with the actual ASP.NET Core server having about a year of uptime.

I have been considering making some QoL changes and creating my own open-source launcher, but I haven't had the time or the mental capacity to do that.

https://github.com/ktwrd/OpenSoftwareLauncher

[Teamancer]

As for platform integration Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are browser based apps with an underlying reusable javascript framework. PWAs can get pretty close to "native" Android, IOS, and desktop apps that can be used in a web browser and/or installed and if appropriate run completely offline.

I've had good results with a PWA that - with the same code and content - runs on the MS Edge browser (desktop) and on Android Chrome and Samsung web browsers(mobile). Haven't tried on IOS.

No play stores involved, though, if you want, play stores do accept PWAs.

PWAs may not be the answer to everything but I believe they're a start.

[solardev]

What if it's just not the kind of thing normal people actually care about? I know that's a taboo thought here on HN, but a well-maintained walled garden is often just a lot nicer for users than too much freedom.

Steam, for example, still dominates PC gaming despite the Epic Game Store, the Microsoft Store, GOG, etc. Conversely, I still don't trust most of the apps on the Google Play Store. And the macOS desktop app marketplace is such a mess, and I wish were more apps were just available on the official Apple app store instead of requiring some third-party purchase pathway (and usually delivered with a DMG image or some Homebrew cask, with no verification or developer signing at all).

Even if Apple allowed third-party app stores, I wouldn't want to install them (nor handle billing through Epic instead of Apple, especially now that Epic is half owned by Tencent).

The peace of mind of having to trust just one marketplace, and also the convenience of being able to easily sync my purchases, save files, etc. across multiple devices using a single login is way more important.

It's not just the technical limitations, but also that some people just don't actually want the wild west when it comes to their computing devices...

[debadyutirc]

Umm it's more complex than that. Open standard would still need money to survive. And Big Tech will flex their philanthropic muscle and influence open standards.

There is a lot of empirical evidence of this. Look at Matter protocol in home automation, GS1 in retail. Starts as a good idea but as soon as there is adoption, there will be several market motions to mess everything up.

The only way for an open standard to grow is a large extremely committed community that is largely made of people who don't have to worry about survival.

[thrwwycbr]

F-droid.org is live and kicking. Reproducible build pipelines of open source apps et al.

Decentralized repos, subscription feeds, key signing, etc.

[julienreszka → thrwwycbr]

It doesn’t solve all aspects I’m interested in. F droid only solves discoverability and only on android. It doesn’t solve monetization nor does it solve platform integration, it doesn’t work with iOS, it’s not platform agnostic.

[thrwwycbr → julienreszka]

Nothing you will ever build will work on iOS, because the minute you make money with it, Apple will kick you out.

Remember headphone jacks? Why do you think they got removed? Because all banking apps were using them, including paypal, square, hsbc and others - due to Apple not leaving any other option to build a credit card reader except by using an audio stream. And then even that got removed :)

[hbcondo714]

I think Store.app, an app store just for installable web apps, can be a place like that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782513

[ksec]

Sorry what exactly is an Open Standard for App Distribution. Are you suggesting an Open App Store? If so who is running the App Store?

[julienreszka → ksec]

Just like json, markdown and rss are open standards, we could make an open standard for app monetization, app discoverability and plaftform integration.

An Open Standard for App Distribution refers to a set of guidelines or specifications that are publicly available and can be implemented by anyone. It could include aspects like app monetization methods, app discovery mechanisms, and integration with various platforms. It's not necessarily a replacement for existing app stores but rather a framework that could be adopted by multiple app stores or platforms. The management or governance of such a standard would likely involve collaboration among industry stakeholders, possibly including developers, platform providers, and standards organizations.

[amadeuspagel]

It's called the web.

[julienreszka → amadeuspagel]

While the web provides a viable alternative, it may not fully address all the concerns. There are still challenges related to monetization, discoverability, and platform integration that need to be addressed.