Wow, the 3 weeks passed quite fast and now the judges should be quite busy on reviewing and choosing the winners from about 150 contest submissions. You can track progress through Ubuntu App Review Board.

As of me, I chosen to go with Hassle Free PC Synchronization idea, but, unfortunately failed to complete it during context time frame and with in this post I’d like to share my achievements, overall contest experience and future plans.

First Week: Ideas

The first thing I did is a short research on the apps peoples missing in Ubuntu. I contacted relatives, who I know using Ubuntu, with a simple question:

Is there an app you’re badly missing in Ubuntu?

Andrew reminded me an issue that we had after migration from OpenSUSE/KDE to Ubuntu:

Seahorse keyring manager not as good as KWallet.

The app my mom was missing is a Gimp, which is available in Software Center, I explained her how to install it :)

Then I focused on my own problems and ideas of interest which I briefly described in previous post.

Second Week: Promotions

I’ve had a hard times choosing right idea for the contest and thought reddit will rescue me, but it’s not… The only one idea passed to the UbuntuAppShowdown list, others stuck - was treated as Spam.

I tried to reach moderators, ping reddit-twi and ubuntuappdev on twitter, even ask a questions through askubuntu website:

How to submit ideas for the Ubuntu Apps Showdown to reddit?

But only week later it has been finally resolved, thanks David!!!

Take this into a count if thinking to use similar tools for the same purpose, at least consider less busy or even dedicated moderators.

Third Week: Concept

That’s when the real party began :)

The last week someone pointed me to unison which is fully addresses visualization issue I mention in the original idea.

This week I also found conduit app which brings synchronization onto new level and showed me the benefits of Avahi service.

So, the original problems was mostly solved and therefore I start looking if there is still anything I could simplify.

Finally the idea was distilled to SyncStar - Ubuntu One style synchronization over local network, which I’ll describe more in upcoming posts once Minimum Viable Product is ready.

The rest of the week I was sketching UI, logo ideas and drawing flowchart diagrams to polish the concept.