And it’s a niche that doesn’t really buy software. Expect lots of praise, but no money 
Best market would be the Mac/iOS market if money is the aim.
The thing about these stores is that the owner uses it to control the flow of apps and customers. On one hand, it allows the curation and vetting of developers and software; provides a supposedly safe and secure environment for the user to make purchases and use the software; and may assist in updates, hotfixes and other value-added services. On the other hand, it could become a so-called walled garden, where there is only one way of doing things and that way only benefits the owner’s interests and opinion.
As someone mentioned, another downside is that the owner takes a cut and also requires developer and other fees and contracts to be honoured. And then there is the race to the bottom to game the system or get ahead. It isn’t easy to keep up with all that stuff. Requires full time non-dev staff just to deal with the ins and outs. Just thinking aloud but I think these downsides hinder a FLOSS developer’s pursuit and joy in making open, free and good software. There are better ways to make money.
Like what? Donations aren’t cutting it.
We choose not to use Windows, in fact. It’s a miracle we have Windows installers at all, all thanks to just one guy currently.
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perhaps FOSSHUB for windows?
Hello @st.raw
And it’s a niche that doesn’t really buy software. Expect lots of praise, but no money.
I suppose you have a point here…
Of course one can not summarize since every Linux user is different…
IMHO, the biggest problem on Linux is that there are not enough artists, right now, using this platform to make a difference. In the long past, most artists worked mainly with Apple hardware for instance.
I have just read some of the last comments on this forum about the Wayland color management to confirm this hunch [1].
Actually, that’s a good point - I wonder what level of requirements there’d be to set up @FossHub with a win/macos client to gain access to that ecosystem.
There are many reasons why free software is not distributed via such stores, and I will share those that I remember:
- Free software was developed before these stores existed.
- As a developer, you choose how you distribute the software to your users.
- There is no way to quickly take care of keeping the software updated on different stores
- Not everyone will agree or like the idea to distribute it via a store that does not fit its own beliefs.
- Free software is (mostly) made available by people who enjoy contributing without expecting a financial contribution.
Etc.
@patdavid, we were working on a software manager for FOSSHUB, but we abandoned the idea temporarily. There are way too many issues (AV, security, automated software updates, OS updates, etc.), and people don’t seem to want such software.
However, FOSSHUB will receive a new, faster, probably uglier layout by the end of this month, followed by a new feature that we hope people will like. I will try to let you guys know as soon as it is ready.
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Oh no! 
Different usergroups, different spending patterns. Some years ago I was in contact with the Pleco (a commercial dictionary software). Their app was iOS only, and was later ported to Android. Even the Android market is much bigger, the iOS side created more revenue.
Personally I don’t really care. For Windows I never use the installed Store. I am aware that some Windows 10 versions can ONLY install store apps - I would not want that version even for free.
MS has been working on a package manager and other Linux-esque tools for some time now. I haven’t been following the development, so I don’t know if it divorced from the walled garden paradigm. Perhaps this is the way forward? That is, in terms of distribution and not so much directing money. We’ll see. See: GitHub - microsoft/winget-cli: WinGet is the Windows Package Manager. This project includes a CLI (Command Line Interface), PowerShell modules, and a COM (Component Object Model) API (Application Programming Interface)..
Earnings from stores - herculean effort to play nice with ecosystem = time and money wasted
vs
Freedom + donations = effort doesn’t consume one’s life + coffee, beer or juice with community
If you look i.e. at OpenCart, it’s a free GNU software (that fully works out of the box), but you can get plugins/apps for it, many are commercial.
I think GIMP also can use some commercial plugins. But recalling how annoying it it was to install a plugin in GIMP I doubt anyone there ever thought about a GIMP Store and charging ‘rent’ for commercial plugins.
But donations more likely won’t work.
Someone actually thought about a GIMP store with only free/libre content though 
That’s a huge misstep, taking down the former extensions page without providing the alternative extensions hub for years. Even if some extensions might not be 100% compatible with the newest Gimp version. Taking away all extensions to improve extension situation in a program, that’s a decision you don’t see every day.
I didn’t see any free content only. Wouldn’t make sense to have that limit.
I’m afraid you are hugely misinformed. The registry was taken down because it was one huge unmaintained security hole that nobody could fix.
Were there any security breaches because of it?
We didn’t want to wait for it to happen.
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