There is another cool feature in software-center in natty that I would like to show today. If you have the package “qtnx” (in universe) installed you will be able to “test-drive” a lot of the available applications in software-center without having to actually install them. They are run via the NX protocol on a remove server with pretty good speed. Its all possible thanks to Stéphane Grabers Weblive.
This is what it loks like (notice the “Test drive” button below the screenshot):
And here what happens when I press test-drive and its connected (connecting takes about a minute currently).
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March 25, 2011 at 9:53 pm |
I think it’s also worth mentioning that this is enabled in Edubuntu in Natty. Happy testdriving!
March 28, 2011 at 7:19 am |
Indeed! Sorry, I should have made it clear that this is a default feature of edubuntu but for Ubuntu it won’t be available by default (but you can make it work via installing qtnx).
March 25, 2011 at 11:50 pm |
So this is possible by installing “qtnx”? What is the probability of this getting built into a future version of ubuntu? (Or am I misunderstanding you, and it already is in the next version).
March 28, 2011 at 7:21 am |
We will discuss about making it a default feature for Ubuntu at the next Ubuntu Develop Summit. Making it default requires that we have the server power on the backend to handle the load. Maybe we only make it available for a subset of apps, its not certain yet.
March 26, 2011 at 3:30 am |
That’d be a great feature if it worked by default.
March 26, 2011 at 7:29 am |
Hey Mvo,
Looks great! But would the button not make more sense next to the install button?
March 26, 2011 at 9:25 am |
Hi!! I see that the feature is not available for all programs. Could you explain what are the limitations? Of course, nobody wonders why Alien Arena wouldn’t work, but I noticed that some simpler 2D arcade games are also not supported.
By the way, Inkskape did work very well!! Wonderful feature!!
March 28, 2011 at 7:11 am |
It depends on whats installed on the remote server that actually runs the apps
The current selection is based on the most popular apps but we can certainly include more in the future.
March 28, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Current list is available at http://www.stgraber.org/download/weblive-list.html
March 26, 2011 at 11:14 am |
That sounds like an incredible feature. I agree that if it proves to be stable it should be included by default.
March 26, 2011 at 11:39 am |
[...] así: Una vez instalado QTNX, nos aparece bajo la imágen la opción Probar. Fuente: Michael Vogt’s Blog Comparte y [...]
March 26, 2011 at 1:29 pm |
[...] info @ mvogt.wordpress.com Tag:natty, nx, softwarecentre Ti è piaciuto l'articolo? [...]
March 26, 2011 at 4:57 pm |
[...] Fonte [...]
March 26, 2011 at 5:54 pm |
[...] για το Κέντρο Λογισμικού Ubuntu (Software Center), παρουσίασε ο Michael Vogt, από τη developer ομάδα του Unity και δίνει τη δυνατότητα να [...]
March 26, 2011 at 7:20 pm |
[...] Via Michael Vogt’s Blog [...]
March 27, 2011 at 1:01 pm |
[...] Narwhal. La feature che è stata introdotta all’interno dell’Ubuntu Software Center (in questa pagina potrete trovare un post di Vogt, sviluppatore di Ubuntu, relativo a questa) è assolutamente [...]
March 27, 2011 at 1:40 pm |
[...] Narwhal. La feature che è stata introdotta all’interno dell’Ubuntu Software Center (in questa pagina potrete trovare un post di Vogt, sviluppatore di Ubuntu, relativo a questa) è assolutamente [...]
March 27, 2011 at 5:10 pm |
[...] 2011 Share story: TweetAmongst the never-ending-list-of-really-cool-features new in Ubuntu 11.04 is ‘Test Drive’ – a new Software Centre feature that allows you to try applications without installing [...]
March 28, 2011 at 3:37 am |
[...] Image courtesy ofMichael Vogt’s Blog [...]
March 29, 2011 at 6:09 pm |
Does this also work with remmina (it has NX plugin) or do we specifically need qtnx?
March 29, 2011 at 6:22 pm |
remmina’s NX client would work as well, you’d just need to update the weblive.py backend file to start it instead.
Last I tried remmina’s implemention of NX was a lot slower than that of the binary client or of qtnx. Also I couldn’t find an easy way to remotely control remmina (as in, start a custom session with a resizable NX desktop).
It’s still definitely an option worth following as remmina’s development is quite active and I generally like the tool (definitely more than I like qtnx
).
March 30, 2011 at 8:15 am |
[...] bien, eso es lo que permite Test Drive -que no tiene nada que ver con aquel desarrollo para probar versiones preliminares de Ubuntu [...]
March 30, 2011 at 10:10 am |
[...] bien, eso es lo que permite Test Drive -que no tiene nada que ver con aquel desarrollo para probar versiones preliminares de Ubuntu [...]
April 12, 2011 at 5:44 pm |
What the heck is a “feaure”?
June 30, 2011 at 6:06 pm |
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October 22, 2011 at 1:36 pm |
Not enough is made of this capability. After the initial buzz of publicity it went underground, I wonder why? RC
(I also like tea and free software)
October 24, 2011 at 8:54 am |
Thanks for your comment. This feature is still enabled on Edubuntu by default and on Ubuntu if you install qtnx. The trouble for enabling it by default for anyone is mostly that its pretty heavy for the remote servers, it will require a lot of servers to provide a good experience for all Ubuntu users.