Overview

In the two years we’ve spent growing the AppCenter ecosystem, we’ve learned a lot about what our users and developer community love, and what could use improving. We’ve zeroed in on what we think can make the biggest impact in four key areas:

1. Improving privacy, security, and stability
2. Empowering developers to ship apps with cutting-edge technologies
3. Streamlining the payments process
4. Expanding the market for AppCenter apps by making them more easily available on other Linux-based operating systems

This campaign will fund a one-week in-person development sprint to develop and deliver on these key areas.

What we have so far:

Since 2007, we’ve built a software company focused around privacy, ethical funding, and making Open Source software accessible and usable. With millions of downloads and glowing reviews from the likes of Forbes, Wired, and more we’re confident that people love elementary OS: the fast, open, and privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS.

A couple years ago, we successfully crowdfunded AppCenter, the pay-what-you-want app store right here on IndieGoGo. With your help, we built a brand new app store that now serves over 160 native, Open Source apps and has paid out thousands of dollars to the people developing them.

But, we can do better

The biggest problem is that apps are currently unconfined. That means that if they wanted to, they could change your system settings, interfere with other apps, read all of your documents, or even get access to your saved passwords.

When developers publish apps in AppCenter, they not only have to pass a suite of automated tests, but we also read their source code and review each app to make sure it isn’t doing things it’s not supposed to. But we’re not perfect; we could miss something. And this means that it can take a long time for apps to get published.

We’ve also heard from developers who want to publish their apps in AppCenter, but can’t because their app requires cutting edge components that aren’t available in elementary OS yet. There are ways to get around this, but the developer experience is tedious and hard to maintain.

Still, others love the idea of an app store that puts Indie developers first, but they want to publish their app somewhere that reaches more than just elementary OS users. Unfortunately, when they publish in other app stores, they lose access to our pay-what-you-want funding model and can get sidelined by our competitors’ focus on catering to big brand name apps.

We also know that entering your payment details for each purchase can be tedious and some people choose not to pay for apps just to save time.

With your help

To tackle these issues, we’d like to bring together a team from around the world to work together in person for a week-long sprint in Denver, Colorado. We’ll need to pay for travel, lodging, and food for the team during that time.

We’ll be rebuilding our publishing back-end, AppCenter Dashboard, from the ground up around a new, confined app format. Specifically, we’ve endorsed Flatpak as the future of app packaging on elementary OS—and we’ve been working with folks from Flathub to collaborate on the underlying system.

Image from Flatpak.org

Team

The team we’ve selected consists of some of the original designers and developers of AppCenter, plus a few new faces who are experienced with integrating Flatpak and server-side automation.

Our solution can be reused and improved by other Flatpak stores.

We will also be joined by folks from Endless, Flathub, and GNOME to work together and ensure our solution can be reused and improved by other Flatpak stores and the greater open source desktop ecosystem.

Flatpak & Wallet

With AppCenter and Flatpak, apps will be installed per user and won’t require advanced permissions to download; so you won’t have to type your password anymore to get apps or their updates.

Apps will be restricted from accessing system or personal files and will be isolated from other apps on a technical level by default. This is sometimes referred to as "Confinement" or "Sandboxing". By using an open standard called Portals, apps will only have access to your operating system or your personal information when you explicitly give your consent.

Apps will only have access to your personal information when you explicitly give your consent.

Developers who are familiar with Flatpak may know that they’ll be able to easily bundle cutting edge dependencies, so you can enjoy games developed with the latest engines.

A prototype of the new payments dialog

Flatpak's latest features will enable us to separate the payments dialog from the AppCenter app on elementary OS. The new AppCenter Authenticator will not only power payments on elementary OS, but it will enable developers to monetize their Open Source apps on other popular Linux-based operating systems like Ubuntu and Fedora from right inside the app stores that are already available on those operating systems.

AppCenter Authenticator will enable developers to monetize their Open Source apps on other operating systems.

Plus, we’ll be working on a secure wallet to save your payment methods and enable fast, one-click purchasing.

A prototype of the new secure wallet for elementary OS

This Campaign

Be sure to check out the perks for backing! There are a variety of levels with some great-looking swag:

Size Charts

Pull-over hoodie:

Zip-up hoodie:

The zip hoodie runs small, we recommend ordering a size or two up for a more relaxed fit.

Any unused or additional funds will be used to contract further development of elementary OS and AppCenter.

AppCenter and elementary OS are our passion, so we’re intent on delivering these features even if this campaign fails. But with your support, we’ll be able to accelerate the timeline on adopting cutting edge technology and making an even more competitive Open Source operating system and a compelling foundation for all Flatpak stores.

To make this campaign as successful as possible, we’d really appreciate it if you’d share it on social media and let people know that you’ve backed us.

Thanks again for your support!

Stretch Goal: 200% = Privacy & Security Sprint

Update Feb 25: With just under two weeks remaining and an impressive 139% of our goal reached, we are excited to share what we've been working on regarding a stretch goal.

AppCenter is a huge part of our work at elementary, but the OS itself and the various pieces of developer- and user-facing tooling are just as important. In the case of Flatpak, the OS needs to provide Portals to developers to access different system features from within a sandboxed app. These Portals appear to users as permissions dialogs, indicators, or other pieces of UI that keep them informed and in control of their privacy and security.

Deliverable

If we hit 200% on this campaign, we will plan an additional sprint later this year with a similar team and budget to tackle further improvements to privacy and security in AppCenter and elementary OS 6. Our primary goal will be to implement the following:

• Location Access Portal for granting access to your approximate physical location once or over time.
• File Chooser Portal for granting access to certain files or folders to an app while keeping everything else private.
• Device Portal for granting access to and providing ongoing disclosure for microphones, cameras, etc.
• Screen-related Portals like screenshot, screencast, and remote desktop to allow both recording portions of the screen and remote access tools to be sandboxed while asking for explicit consent and providing ongoing disclosure.
• Portal/permissions integration into System Settings.
• More, as needed/possible.

By getting together again in person to work on privacy and security in elementary OS, we’ll be able to ensure apps can be more tightly sandboxed while offering up standard APIs and a consistent user experience for permitting apps to interact with their device and data. We will be able to enforce stricter defaults for AppCenter apps, requiring even less manual review and encouraging even better system integration with any Flatpak-running OS.

Another awesome part about Portals is that they’re not just for Flatpak; Snaps and other types of apps can utilize Portals to ensure apps are as confined as possible while still being able to do useful things in a controlled manner.

And of course, these Portals will be completely open source on GitHub and included in elementary OS 6.

Team

Different goals means a slightly different team. We plan for the following to get together, focusing on their areas of expertise:

• Daniel Foré - design, desktop
• Cassidy Blaede - design, desktop
• Adam Bieńkowski - desktop, Gala
• David Hewitt - desktop, Flatpak
• Corentin Noël - desktop, Flatpak
• Others as availability is confirmed

This Stretch Goal

If we don’t meet this stretch goal, everything over 100% will still go towards contracting work on elementary OS and AppCenter (including work on these Portals), but we may not be able to get together in person and hammer out this work as quickly.

If you have already backed and would like to increase your contribution, you can select “Back It” again, and choose any additional perks. And of course, to make this campaign and stretch goal as successful as possible, we’d really appreciate it if you’d share it on social media and let people know that you’ve backed us.

Thank you so much again for your support!