Show already-installed package version when installing a third-party one

[Victor Porton]

When installing a deb file, gnome-software should show the already-installed version if an older or newer version of the package was already installed.

It should also apply to packages to be installed from repositories (not sure if this already works).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: ubuntu-software 3.30.2-0ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-13.14-generic 4.18.17
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu13.2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Feb 9 09:49:19 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-06-23 (230 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
InstalledPlugins:
 gnome-software-plugin-flatpak N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-limba N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-snap 3.30.2-0ubuntu8
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_IL
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-software
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to cosmic on 2018-10-20 (111 days ago)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we cannot work on this bug because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures.

At a minimum, we need:
1. The specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem.
2. The behavior you expected.
3. The behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Victor Porton (porton)]

On 13/02/2019 1:37, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we cannot work on this bug because your
> description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful
> to read "How to report bugs effectively"
> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful
> if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.
>
> We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures.
>
> At a minimum, we need:
> 1. The specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem.
> 2. The behavior you expected.
> 3. The behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).

1. I click a .deb file.

2. I want to see both the new version and the old version.

3. I see only the new version.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

How do you envision it to work? Having a split screen which twice the same page on the left/right for example? What's the usecase?

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

Like what the old software centre did before Xenial, it showed a notice that the same software is already installed but with a different version (older or newer). This notice could be shown in the Details section of gnome-software, like the notice that is shown when installing an unconfined snap.

And if a third-party software already exists in the repositories (installed or not), it advised the user to install the one in the repositories (safer) instead of the third-party one, and showed both versions.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

That would be a wishlist for upstream