Hey guys, maybe a small bug.
I’ve updated to the latest Aurora build, which includes Bazaar as the default app store.
If I try to run Discovery, it’s not there (as expected). However, I’ve been getting notifications from Discovery, which opens Discovery when clicked.
I don’t think this is what’s to be expected, or is it?
Do you see discover under /usr/bin on the host?
Nope.
But I do see plasma-discover in the /bin directory
Yeah, plasma-discover is what it’s called. I still have that on my Aurora system under /usr/bin/plasma-discover, but mine uses Bazaar by default. Do you know if it is set to autostart on your system?
I don’t see it listed in the autostart section in System Settings. It’s not a huge bother, but it seems like a bug to me (to have it running while Bazaar is supposed to have taken over the app store).
Yeah that’s not the intended way. Can you check if it exists under /etc/xdg/autostart?
I do see org.kde.discover.notifier.desktop in that directory, but nothing else “discover” related.
Ah I see. That’s the culprit then. You said you only get notifications from Discover, right? You can delete that file.
sudo rm -fv /etc/xdg/autostart/org.kde.discover.notifier.desktop
You will need to reboot for changes to take effect.
Thanks!
When I do click on that notification, it loads up Discover. Shouldn’t that already be gone, or is it embedded (but not enabled) in Aurora by default now?
Yeah I’m not sure if they removed the plasma-discover package from the base Aurora image builds – maybe they kept it for some technical reason – but it shouldn’t be active by default. I’m guessing when you upgraded your Aurora system, that file under /etc/xdg/autostart wasn’t removed. The /etc directory isn’t layered or part of the ostree, so it makes sense that the upgrade process didn’t touch it.
We kept it on the image because some people asked for it. We disable it and have replaced it with bazaar as a default.
This approach comes with its own challenges as we have to consider all the existing systems who have config files in their home (which we can’t touch!), which reference discover in some way, think icons on the panel etc. This is the case as soon as you do simple things, like move some icons around, vast majority of users should be in this group I’m guessing.
We chose this approach because else people would have ended up with blank icon where discover used to be. “Where is discover?” “Discover is gone/broken“
Removing discover and symlinking the desktop files to bazaar would have prevented people from layering it.
Help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
I will look into some further cleanup, it’s not gonna be pleasant as it’s tightly knit into KDE.
Thanks for that info! I’ll take a look and see if I can do anything to help!
As long as I can still do:
rpm-ostree override remove bazaar krunner-bazaar
and have Discover there working properly afterward…
Removing a working and stable KDE application for a WiP GNOME one in a KDE DE image is a little goofy. Discover, as you say, is pretty embedded in KDE. Trying to pull it out and replace it with something that doesn’t have feature parity is a little Windows11 of the Aurora team. 
I kid, I kid. But running plasma-discover from the shell and getting the Bazaar taskbar icon… let’s say the Microsoft comparison was right there waiting to be noticed.
I wonder how many people will use the ujust script to switch back to Discover, or do what I did and yank it out of the image. Why put in all the work to de-KDE-ify the KDE desktop experience when the KDE users (the ones that specifically are using Aurora instead of Bluefin because they actually like KDE) will have to root around in the command line to restore proper functionality (or worse yet, make their own image template)?
What I find particularly strange about this decision is that Bazaar is on Flathub. Anyone that wants to use it can just download it through Discover. There’s literally no good reason to remove a working upstream application like this.
In the end you did pretty much nothing. It is still in the image its just “hidden”. Eats the same tiny amount of storage it did before. And also slows down your new image deployments as it has to add that hide layer on the image
You get the same result, withouth the deployment slowness by using the ujust script.
It is still KDE. We have never said that this would be pure KDE image. Oh well it kind is because KDE is KDE, and apps are QT. But we have had GTK apps on there right from the beginning, so we are already de-KDE-ifyd this.
yeah, it is NOW on flathub, been there under 24hours.
I use the command line and Flatseal to manage flatpak applications, so the switch to Bazaar doesn’t really affect me too much. But I do have to wonder about the merits of switching to a WIP application while Plasma Discover is already there and stable and pretty much baked into KDE. It seems like a solution without a problem.
@inffy Can you perhaps enlighten me as to the reasoning behind the decision to use Bazaar instead of Discover?
Whether the files are still there, or whatever - that doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that it works properly. With notifications for updates going through Discover. Clicking on that notification loads up Discover. And when Discover loads, it has its own icon and not the Bazaar icon (whoever had the idea to do this - I dunno what was going on in their head).
Does Aurora have some GNOME applications in it already? Sure. That’s fine. But this isn’t some extra application. Or some clickable “default application” selection inside settings. This is the entire software center. With its notifications, desktop search integration, etc… It’s already there, and a part of KDE.
I get why Bluefin would switch it out. GNOME Software Center is slow, clunky, and has weird refresh issues when searching. Exchanging it for a new option (that is also GTK and integrates well into the desktop) seems fine. Even Bazzite I kinda understand since it is only incidentally a KDE spin. It’s primarily about the best performance and features for gaming, and geared for newcomers. Fine.
But Aurora? The KDE alternative to Bluefin? Why is it in HERE?
And of course it’s on Flathub. I think it was on their wishlist for a while, but even if it hadn’t been it’s so obvious that it would be on Flathub eventually.
I only got into this thing when my Aurora desktop suddenly was switched to Bazaar on an update and I was getting double notifications and stuff. Why was this done?
As far as I can tell, the reason to do all this work to remove Discover and try to integrate (as best as the developers can) Bazaar has to do with promoting the Flathub ecosystem. Yes, it is visually discordant with the rest of the DE. Yes, it is missing features (like cancelling an install, or adding/removing flatpak repos). Yes, it definitely has elements of WiP that are not present there in a mature solution like Discover.
However, it’s worth it for the “greater good” of the FlatHub ecosystem. Bazaar allows curated/sponsored applications on the landing page. It directs people to donate money to the application developers. Curation+Monetization. Basically, make it less like a power tool for managing software, and more like, uhhhh, other operating systems’ application stores (fill in the blank here) with big banners and less configuration.
Who knows? Maybe that’s what users want. GNOME Software Center is so clunky it wouldn’t surprise me if the Bluefin users were thrilled with it. But as a replacement for Discover?
I dunno.
Yes we will be removing those notifications
Because Discover is klunky, we already had to remove stuff from it to not break users systems (like themes etc). Bazaar is faster, we can customise it way more, provides us to select apps to feature in the front page.
These are not missing, these are things that will not be there, atleast not on the aurora version in the near future.
One issue and this has been discussed in another thread, is that the KDE devs are considering ways to use Discover to give users notifications when a reboot is needed for updates (security for example). Remove Discover and notifications, and now that’s on the ublue Aurora team to figure out how to provide that (not being mean or anything, just that without Discover, that now has be done by something else). Honestly I don’t care one way or another For discover. I DO care about having some way for my 75 year old father in law to know that he needs to reboot because he hasn’t rebooted his laptop but used sleep/hibernate for a month (many many many people do this).
Exactly the point I’ve been trying to make for Bluefin! It seems very hard to imagine how many people are totally used to a laptop that does not turn off.
Just like I never turn off my phone. If I had to teach my parents or partner that they from now on have to turn off the system they will say oh, is it too old? Should we buy a new one?
Because a laptop you just close the lid and it will suspend-then-hibernate (works perfectly for me on all systems I installed Bluefin on).
All they need is to know it’s time to reboot. Nothing is forced upon them. They are being informed.
I therefore hope there will be a universal solution that provides users with this information, one that works for Aurora, Bluefin, Bazzite. Regardless if that’s via Bazaar or other mechanism.
It’s not just laptops, though. Many people leave their desktops on at home for even longer. I mean, I sometimes go months without needing to reboot my non-uBlue desktop system.
Needing to reboot isn’t a big deal for me since I always make sure I’m up-to-date. But if we want to spread Aurora or Bluefin to users who don’t check updates regularly, then this is definitely something that needs to be addressed.