Change:
</term> <listitem> <para> <del> AppCenter has been available since 20.03, but it is of little use. This is because there is no functioning PackageKit backend for Nix 2.0. Starting from 21.11, the Flatpak backend should work so you can install some Flatpak applications using it. See this <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/70214">issue</link>. </del> <ins> AppCenter has been available since 20.03. Starting from 21.11, the Flatpak backend should work so you can install some Flatpak applications using it. However, due to missing appstream metadata, the Packagekit backend does not function currently. See this <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/15932">issue</link>. </ins> </para> <para> <del> To use AppCenter on NixOS, add <literal>pantheon.appcenter</literal> to <xref linkend="opt-environment.systemPackages" />, <link linkend="module-services-flatpak">enable Flatpak support</link> and optionally add the <literal>appcenter</literal> Flatpak remote: </del> <ins> If you are using Pantheon, AppCenter should be installed by default if you have <link linkend="module-services-flatpak">Flatpak support</link> enabled. If you also wish to add the <literal>appcenter</literal> Flatpak remote: </ins> </para> <screen> <prompt>$ </prompt>flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists appcenter https://flatpak.elementary.io/repo.flatpakrepo

Discussion:
Elementary's AppCenter will use Flatpak in the future for their packages. Since we support Flatpak, we would be able to support AppCenter. If we support PackageKit, it would even be possible to install Nix packages with AppCenter. (Needs ) In that case native Nix packages should be preferred. I think AppCenter would be perfect for elementary's Pantheon desktop and we should support it (if possible). That way we would also be able to install all Apps from their store and even pay the developers. It would be great to be able to pay-what-you-want even for native Nix packages installed with AppCenter! what do you think? Related to
Sounds great I believe to start I can just package Appcenter. I'll do that as a part of
It seems fedora gave up on Appcenter But I think with flatpak they've given it some future in other distributions.
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would still be nice
I used the Software app in gnome3 and the flatpacked software is pretty meh. I could replace all the ones I was interested in with native NixPkgs. I think it's achievable for us to have a packagekit backend again, listing all the packages that have .desktop files in them. This would have many advantages over flatpack and give NixPkgs a chance at mainstream success.
while i agree with your long term goal, this is probably easier to achieve. And the elementary AppCenter has only original programs designed for elementary OS mostly not packaged for Nix.

Having had a look at it, I wouldn't object to having the appcenter in nixpkgs, but I won't be the one packaging it :)
you don't have to :) another idea i had was to automatically package all AppCenter apps for Nix (). To have a great desktop experience with a graphical package manager, a packagekit backend would be perfect. That way we don't have to develop our own GUI and it's perfectly integrated in the desktop. ()
I marked this as stale due to inactivity. &rarr;
I am not sure about the status of appcenter before my last push in , and I am not sure if can resolve something (this does not actually clean up everything related to packagekit, so maybe not a solution to ). But I am able to install some apps with the flatpak backend from it now (you can try by adding or ). Update: Just dropped more stuff. !
I would say this works now. I can install, update and remove flatpaks. ! I just had to enable flatpak support and install appcenter. And add the elementary repo: should we document these steps?
Yeah the manual needs update (), I didn't noticed that when doing . I am also thinking of whether we should make appcenter installed by default.
I am also thinking of whether we should make appcenter installed by default. We should do that only when it's usable. So we would have to enable flatpak too, but i think most nixos users wouldn't want that by default. It also should add the elementary repo automatically. I would like to have appcenter installed by default when it supports nix packages via packagekit.
Hope this works... Not familiar with appcenter's code base and cannot do more so far...
is just merged, I will see if the patch is still needed.
Probably still need for the appcenter to display stuff (at least I assume that is why nothing is displayed in GNOME Software).
I just realized that I am stupid and did not enable in previous testing. The (only) motivation of the patch is to prevent the non-working packagekit backend from blocking the flatpak backend functioning, after some testing I came to the conclusion that it should only be the case when is not enabled. I will make a pull request soon.