Some free applications looks like paid applications with price 0.00 and with buy button

Bug #968974 reported by Nicholas Shatokhin
382
This bug affects 76 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
unity-lens-applications
Won't Fix
Medium
Unassigned
software-center (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
High
Unassigned
unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

Just watch an attachment screenshot. Pages of some free applications looks like as pages of paid applications, but with zero price.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: software-center 5.1.13.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.27-generic-pae 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 1.95-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Mar 30 11:19:48 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta i386 (20120301)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=uk_UA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: software-center
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Nicholas Shatokhin (robotex) wrote :
Michael Vogt (mvo)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → Medium
milestone: none → ubuntu-12.04
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Specification updated. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter?action=diff&rev2=623&rev1=622> "If the item is not installed nor queued for installation, the price of the item (e.g. 'Free') at the leading end, and a button at the trailing end: 'Buy…' if installation requires sign-in and payment, 'Install…' if it requires sign-in only, or 'Install' if it requires neither."

I don't think varying "Install" to "Install…" is worth breaking string freeze for Pangolin.

Michael Vogt (mvo)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Triaged → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote :

Unfortunately the changes in lp:~mvo/software-center/lp968974 are not sufficient and this needs more work, see
the code review comments from kiwinote for the additional issues that needs fixing before this can land.

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
milestone: ubuntu-12.04 → none
status: In Progress → Confirmed
tags: added: rls-q-incoming
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
milestone: none → ubuntu-12.04.1
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Quantal):
milestone: none → quantal-alpha-3
Revision history for this message
Stéphane Graber (stgraber) wrote :

Is this work still on schedule to land in 12.04.1? Who's working on it? (please assign the bug to whoever is supposed to work on it).

Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Quantal):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
milestone: ubuntu-12.04.1 → ubuntu-12.04.2
anthony (ant-jens)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Quantal):
milestone: quantal-alpha-3 → ubuntu-12.10
Michal Hruby (mhr3)
Changed in unity-lens-applications:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Paweł Stołowski (stolowski) wrote :

This also affects application lens, as some apps display 'Buy Free' button in the preview in the dash, because software-center-dbus GetAppDetails() call returns price = "Free" and raw_price = "0.00". For consistency with other commercial apps, price in the app details data should say "US$ 0.00" (i.e. should be a formatted price) for those apps.

Revision history for this message
Cassidy James Blaede (cassidyjames) wrote :

Pawel, I disagree. I think it makes more sense to have the free apps simply be listed as "Free" then as $0. This is pretty standard convention in other app distribution models. However, they shouldn't say, "Buy Free" because that just doesn't make sense.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
milestone: none → raring-round-4
John Pugh (jpugh)
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
importance: Medium → High
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu Precise):
importance: Medium → High
Revision history for this message
John Pugh (jpugh) wrote :

@cassidyjames you and @stolowski have valid points. I think there needs to be delineation of "free to access" apps vs "go thru buy process" apps. For instance, apps in the "paid applications/commercial" status do require one to go through the buy process to validate a subscription whereas other apps that are not "commercial" do not. So technically "commercial" apps are not "free", but they are $0.00 requiring one to go through the purchase process which is simply a login to the pay system for validation.

Revision history for this message
Radko Dinev (radko-dinev) wrote :

The "Nitro" app shows "Free" and there's a "Buy..." button that takes me to sign in the payment service. So I kinda did a $0.00 purchase. Why was that and is that expected behavior? IMHO not the best UX and quite confusing even for a power user.

Revision history for this message
uwe (maabdulhaq) wrote :

Well, in non-english, there is yet another related issue, the ambiguity free/gratis does not nessessrly exist, the current situation probably enforces this ambiguity on other languages! I think a 0.00$ is ok; or Gratis.

Revision history for this message
John Pugh (jpugh) wrote :

@radko-dinev that is expected behavior. Nitro is a $0 app that is a proprietary license. It requires a $0 subscription hence the need to authenticate the access to the app.

Revision history for this message
Radko Dinev (radko-dinev) wrote :

@jpugh My point is you don't buy free things so the "Buy..." caption is misleading in conjunction with "Free".

tags: added: ca-escalated
Revision history for this message
Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

The Software Centre should be context-sensitive, so when you're looking at an app where price == 0.00, the option is to 'Install' with the price text shown as 'Free', and if price > 0.00, the option is to 'Buy', with the price text will be shown as the price.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → High
Revision history for this message
Ole Daniel Evensen (ole-daniel-evensen) wrote :

This bug has a lot of duplicates, so the effect of this bug is fairly noticeable to several users. Still present in 13.04

@jpugh Login to verify "subscription" on a free "commercial" app does not make sense. It is also poorly aligned with the general F/OSS policy. If this behaviour is something forced on Canonical by the commercial companies behind these applications, then this should be clarified to the user, as to not appear as a forced recruitment for Ubuntu One.

I don't expect to have to accept additional terms of services, and create and login to an account to install FREE/GRATIS software on a F/OSS operating system. I hope the bug here is just the misplacing of the buy-button and the forced login that comes with it. If not, then we are done, Ubuntu. Then we are done.

Revision history for this message
Leonardo Donelli (learts92) wrote :

I think the whole software center should make more clear the distinction between Free Software (as in free speech), Free software (as in free beer, freeware) and commercial software with a price.
And when installing freeware software that requires sign on, it should alert that is just for "subscription" need, you're not paying anything. I remember, when installing Steam, I was kind of scared: I had to press a Buy button, even if the price was 0, and then sign in to my launchpad account without a help/explanation/apparent motive.

no longer affects: software-center (Ubuntu Precise)
no longer affects: software-center (Ubuntu Quantal)
Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → High
Dave Morley (davmor2)
tags: added: u1-notrack
Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in software-center:
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
assignee: nobody → Paper Cuts Ninja (papercuts-ninja)
Revision history for this message
Norbert (nrbrtx) wrote :

This is not fixed in Ubuntu 12.04 and Gigalomania (as original bug-reporter said).
The source code of this game is freely available - so it's Free (as in freedom, not money) Software, licensed under GPL v2.

Revision history for this message
Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e) wrote :

I can confirm all the content of Gigalomania is under a libre license, as said in http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.harman/comp_gigalomania.html.

tags: added: scopes-s
Changed in unity-lens-applications:
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
michael perigard (overprescribed) wrote :

still present while downloading free game 'wakfu' through software center in 13.10 - asked to 'buy' and log into ubuntu one

all my comments are repeats of and agreements to the above; 'purchase' or 'buy' as a button never ever makes sense gramatically in English for obtaining a free product- there should be an 'install' button which is consistent with the rest of the software catalog. if the software catalog is having issues with free as in beer vs free as in speech, that's a shame, because it should be a bastion and showcase for apps that are free in both regards, as well as showing how free as in beer but closed source apps play well with their FOSS friends and alternatives. instead it seems the software center isn't even designed to showcase free, closed-source apps that should be a simple automated install :(

as usual, ubuntu doesn't have enough developers to keep up with 18 month old UX bugs, and the debian core remains usable while the ubuntu user experience looks well intentioned but unmaintained :/ not complaining, just lamenting- I have neither the time nor the experience to contribute more to ubuntu, and I don't expect others to pick up the slack. just making an observation that ubuntu's most polished features tend to appear as if they are perpetual alpha-builds.

Revision history for this message
Paddy Landau (paddy-landau) wrote :

@overprescribed: "… the software catalog … should be a bastion and showcase for apps that are free in both regards…"

Um…

There is no "should" in this regard. Remember that the target user for Ubuntu (which includes myself) doesn't give a hoot about libre vs. licensed. We only care that the products are cheap and that they work without malware.

If Ubuntu starts making a noise about libre vs. licensed, it will simply put off many LInux converts.

Changed in hundredpapercuts:
assignee: Papercuts Ninjas (papercuts-ninja) → nobody
Revision history for this message
JaSauders (jasauders) wrote :

This seems to -still- be an issue on 14.04 with applications such as Nitro Tasks and Steam... There hasn't been any discussion in quite some time so I figured I'd make note about 14.04 in particular. It sure is a confusing task when a new Ubuntu convert fires it up and realizes they have to set up an account to log in to the service before "purchasing" the free application they're intending to install...

Revision history for this message
Haikal Zain (haikalzain2010) wrote :

Hi i think i found the bug but i need some help building software-center.
In applications.py in the folder db there is this line:

if self.raw_price:
                    return PkgStates.NEEDS_PURCHASE

this handles the case where there isn't a raw price (hence some apps appear free)
but raw price is a string so it should be

if self.raw_price and self.raw_price != '0.00':
                    return PkgStates.NEEDS_PURCHASE

to handle the other apps (which don't appear free even when they should)

based on the readme there were some extra python packages required which i installed then i did
python setup.py build
./software-center

as instructed to get a 'developer instance' which opened a software center that promptly crashed. i got some error messages about modules not found such as queue and urllib.parse which look like python3 modules which doesn't make sense since xapian is in python2. I'd like some guidance with this. tia

Revision history for this message
Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote :

@Haikal: Thanks for your interesst in looking into this issue!

Unfortunately the README is no longer up-to-date with the changes in the source code layout. Please run:
$ bzr branch lp:software-center
$ cd software-center
$ python setup.py build
$ PYTHONPATH=. ./bin/software-center

Revision history for this message
Cheung Leung (zhangliang940420) wrote : Re: [Bug 968974] Re: Some free applications looks like paid applications with price 0.00 and with buy button

solved thankyou all v. much

2014-05-02 15:54 GMT+08:00 Michael Vogt <email address hidden>:
> @Haikal: Thanks for your interesst in looking into this issue!
>
> Unfortunately the README is no longer up-to-date with the changes in the source code layout. Please run:
> $ bzr branch lp:software-center
> $ cd software-center
> $ python setup.py build
> $ PYTHONPATH=. ./bin/software-center
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1258565).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/968974
>
> Title:
> Some free applications looks like paid applications with price 0.00
> and with buy button
>
> Status in One Hundred Papercuts:
> Triaged
> Status in Ubuntu Software Center:
> Confirmed
> Status in Unity Applications Lens:
> Confirmed
> Status in “software-center” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
> Status in “unity-lens-applications” package in Ubuntu:
> Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Just watch an attachment screenshot. Pages of some free applications
> looks like as pages of paid applications, but with zero price.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
> Package: software-center 5.1.13.2
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.27-generic-pae 3.2.6
> Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic-pae i686
> ApportVersion: 1.95-0ubuntu1
> Architecture: i386
> Date: Fri Mar 30 11:19:48 2012
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta i386 (20120301)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> ProcEnviron:
> TERM=xterm
> PATH=(custom, no user)
> LANG=uk_UA.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: software-center
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+bug/968974/+subscriptions

Luca Traversari (trave5)
Changed in software-center:
assignee: nobody → Luca Traversari (trave5)
dobey (dobey)
Changed in software-center:
assignee: Luca Traversari (trave5) → nobody
dobey (dobey)
no longer affects: software-center
Norbert (nrbrtx)
tags: removed: precise
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.10 (quantal) reached end-of-life on May 16, 2014.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.

Changed in unity-lens-applications:
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
Changed in software-center (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Changed in unity-lens-applications (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
affects: hundredpapercuts → ubuntu
no longer affects: ubuntu
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Related questions

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.