The desktop applications and other software tools used by AwaOS are selected according to specific guidelines as much as possible. Where this is not possible, it is hoped that existing applications can be revised to fit the guidelines or that new applications can be written in the future.
- The application should be free and open source. The application should not use or be based on proprietary technology or services if at all avoidable. The application should not encourage or promote for fee services. For instance, a music player application should preferably not access an online music store, rather any purchasing choices made by the user should be limited to accessing an online shopping site in a web browser (for music, books, or what ever) so that shopping is a “sandbox” activity and its compulsive nature is in no way supported or encouraged by the application.
- The application should be available (compilable) for both x86 and PPC architectures, as old Macs are just as likely to be candidates for recycling as old intel based PCs.
- The usability of the GUI should be a top priority. The GUI should not appear, for instance, to be “slapped on” to an existing command line tool so that the user only doesn’t have to type commands. Rather, the GUI should be based on well thought use cases which assume users with minimum skills.
- The application should be resource efficient. Rather than designing to have as many bells and whistles as possible, the application should be designed to use only the resources it needs for only the tasks it needs to perform. Specifically, the application should be written in a fast compiled language using standard libraries. The application should not use an interpreted language that requires the overhead of the interpreter (such as Python) and should not rely on large collections of alternative libraries or development environments (such as Mono).
- The application should be specifically written to use the GTK+ toolkit, which strikes a balance between resource use, popularity of use, and compatibility with internationalization. Further, the application should completely follow the system wide GTK theme settings, including button icons and menu theming.
- The application should be fully locale agnostic. The application should be usable in diverse languages without burden on the user.
- The application should be fully Internet and cloud aware. Applications should be able to sync relevant data and configuration information to the cloud so that a users data and activities are always backed up.
#None of the currently selected applications meet this criteria out of the box at the moment. - The application should have a simple, accessible, and minimalist interface. Advanced features should only be displayed optionally, including menus. For example, administrative functions should not be made available by default. The most common actions, including closing the application, should be possible with a mouse click.
- The application interface should scale well across a range of screen resolutions.
- The various applications should not duplicate functions in other applications. For instance, it is typical for PIM applications and email clients to both have their own address book functions. This is not desirable. Rather, the duplicated function should be a separate application the data of which other applications have access to.
