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microsoft / pxt-arcade

Arcade game editor based on Microsoft MakeCode
https://arcade.makecode.com
MIT License
473 stars 200 forks source link

Linux offline app #6328

Open Jaqster opened 5 months ago

Jaqster commented 5 months ago

Request from a partner, EndlessOS, who is doing outreach programs in emerging markets with no internet access. They have their own Linux computers they take to these countries and would like an offline app of Arcade that works on Linux machines. @manuq

cassidyjames commented 5 months ago

Hey @Jaqster, I'm a partner success engineer at the Endless OS Foundation, and am also a volunteer for Flathub, the Linux app store we ship on Endless OS, comes as the default app source for the Steam Deck desktop mode, and is supported across almost every Linux distribution.

My EOSF colleague @manuq shared some notes about your meeting together, and I wanted to chime in to let you know that I'm here to help you and your team out when it comes to the Flatpak or Flathub side. I might not have all the answers personally, but I am in pretty constant communication with the rest of the folks at Flathub and can help point you in the right direction, to the right documentation, to the right person, etc.

I'd love to collaborate on bringing Microsoft MakeCode Arcade to Linux via Flathub. I'm happy to answer any questions here on this issue, or to connect via email at cassidy@endlessos.org.

Jaqster commented 5 months ago

Hi Cassidy, nice to meet you :-) What might help is to get an idea of how many Linux devices you guys distribute per year, just to get a feel for scale, if that's public information. Thanks! @abchatra FYI

cassidyjames commented 5 months ago

Sure @Jaqster! Flathub, the Linux app store that ships on Endless OS, Steam Deck desktop mode, Fedora, etc. has an estimated 1 million active users (based on public stats of the number of updates to a near universal dependency… I'm checking to see if we can get that announced publicly!).

For Endless OS specifically we estimate around 70,000 active users: 20,000 online users and 50,000 additional offline users (based on downloads and distribution arrangements with other vendors; since our solution is targeted to work well entirely offline, it's not possible to get an exact number of offline active users).

The beauty of Flathub is that it is an independent but centralized app store for all Linux distributions: it's developed collaboratively by the major platforms (KDE and GNOME) along with independent contributors; comes enabled out of the box on many distros; and is usable with just a couple of steps on all others—with the same compatibility and sandboxing guarantees across all platforms. And in most cases, apps on Flathub are discoverable and automatically updatable from the OS's default app store client.