Discover getting better - Opinions?

[oshunluvr]

I've been trying to give Discover a chance and it seems like it's gotten much better.

Does anyone know if it does "full-upgrade" or just regular "upgrade" when using the updater from the systray?

Your thoughts?

[TWPonKubuntu]

I'm still not happy with Discover. When I run it, it starts some processes which appear to be looking for new updates, but never finds anything and never stops until I do a reboot.

I can't speak to whether it runs a full-upgrade or not because it never gets to that point.

My updates/upgrades are done from command line now

I'm running Kubuntu 19.04, Kernel 5.0.10

Not sure if this is helpful, but it's what I've got.

[claydoh]

Discover is doing full-upgrade (or rather pkcon update, which does the same thing)

I use it almost exclusively for installing updates, and browsing for things like games, KDE store stuff, things that lend themselves better be able to physically see . I still usually install most software on the command line, as I usually know what I want by name, and it is quicker. I have not issues in a long time, even when I was in Australia using a mediocre mobile connection for everything, and at times spotty local Ubuntu repos. The last time I actually had a problem with it was when KDE store was broken (yet again), and a flatpack repo was ungodly slow, and that was a while back now. There have been tons of improvements and tweaks since Plasma 5.12.

My only quibble is that it is not visually apparent what package is a native one, or a snap/flatpak, unless you scroll to the bottom of each one's entry. The KDEnlive flatpak is 500 mb


I glance at this weekly blog that briefly summarizes changes happening in Plasma, etc. There have been a steady slate of Discover related things over the past year or more.

[oshunluvr]

I have zero run-on or frozen process problems with it.

The things I don't like are;

• The dumb "Featured" list it opens with. Is someone paying for advertising to get their app on the list? The list never changes even after you install one of the programs on it.
• The sources list is totally useless. I use quite a few external PPAs and if you look at my sources list in Discover you see six or seven listed only as "Bionic (Main)" leading one to believe I have the same source six or seven times. Also very dumb.
• Biggest complaint is the lack of info. I would like a window that shows what it's doing. For example, when you click "Check for Updates" I'd like to see the sources scroll by and get to see any errors.

But the update feature seems to work flawlessly here. I'm going to keep using it for a while and see where it goes. Maybe I'll report my complaints as bugs/feature requests.

[oshunluvr]

Another failing. I just used update and did apt along side. Apt reported 17 packages needing updating but Discover only 16. I ran update via Discover then re-ran apt and I saw one package wasn't updated because multiple versions are available. Apt notifies you and Discover ignores the update. Not good.

EDIT: Turns out it was a package confliction because a dependent package wasn't available. While Discover did the correct thing and did break my system, it also did not notify me of the issue.

[claydoh]

You can install Kubuntu's sources manager, which will hook into Discover - software-properties-kde iirc. It won't replace that crappy view, but there will be a Sources button off to the side that will open up the *buntu specific sources tool. Being cross-distro, this feature probably needs more work. I'll bet it works fine on Suse

I had a problem with deps last week (self induced) on Kubuntu 19.04. I did get an error pop up showing the apt error message, I was sort of surprised at that tbh.

I personally don't mind not seeing all the output messages, as it is not what this software center is for.

Lurking in irc and KDE's forums, I have noted a vast drop in posts concerning Discover in the past 6+ months or more, if not longer.

[Snowhog]

Lurking in irc and KDE's forums, I have noted a vast drop in posts concerning Discover in the past 6+ months or more, if not longer.

Which could mean: 1) Discover is finally working as it should, or 2) people have given up all hope of it's improving and have stopped commenting on it!

[claydoh]

Haters gonna hate

I forgot to add Reddit to the list

But taking into account the steady influx of new neon users who are not familiar with apt on Ubuntu systems, it could indicate that it works well for its purpose, except for those who need or want the advanced features it's not intended to have.

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[jglen490]

I have tried Discover on some smaller updates that pop up, and it seems to work better than it used to, but remains (molasses in winter) slow. I'm still primarily a Synaptic (new installs) and apt (for update/full-upgrade) kind of user.

[claydoh]

Actually, my sources are quite straightforward. Each 'bionic' entry for the normal repos is followed by which component it is for -- Main, Universe, Updates, Multiverse, Backports
However, the Neon entry at the bottom, and not shown in my well-planned screenshott, doesn't/can't indicate what it is, as it is just another standard source as far as apt is concerned.




Dang why are these images so big, lol.

[oshunluvr]

I counted 10 entries that say only "Bionic (main)" with no further info. BUT if you click on it, it displays a single line showing the source name. Of course, a dumb side panel opens taking half the screen and there's a cute back ground of a latte under the area where the text is displayed just to make it harder to read. What The Frank? Who in the world thought that was a good idea? Some friggin' hipster no doubt. Add what exactly does a latte have to do with Linux or Plasma? You can sum it up as using a lot of screen space for almost no information. Next thing you know the Help function will be a link to some stupid Youtube video.

I'm not noticing speed problems however. Seems as quick as apt is.

[jglen490]

Hmmm, environmental differences I guess ...

[oshunluvr]

I just discovered (pun) that my Discover looks different than on another PC.

It's seems my main desktop PC has Discover version 5.12.8 and my new work computer install has 5.15.4. This is why I'm not seeing the sources descriptions I think. On the new work PC I see an italicized label in the description and on my older desktop I do not.

[jlittle]

I just discovered (pun) that my Discover looks different than on another PC.

Note that in the past what Discover has shown depended on the size of the window. If the window was below some size it would leave off some items. Also, the arrangement sometimes changed with the aspect ratio.

So, if comparing its appearance I'd suggest making the windows the same height and width. I imagine it's not Discover doing that but the underlying toolkit trying to adapt to small devices.

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