Stardock has a history of distributing their software by means of a desktop application (SDC, Impulse). The latest seems to be a software incarnation of SDC, undoubtedly better than ever.
After the demise of Impulse I began to use the Store. I'm not particularly fond of using apps in the cloud, but I started thinking of the added value of using a propriety software manager on the desktop. The features of SDC according to Startdock are:
- Install new software and available updates
- Automatically check for updates.
- Silently install software and show beta downloads.
- Select your file location for backups or reinstalling.
Maybe apart from the second all can be accomplished with the Store. And who really needs automatic update checks? I'm pretty sure it's not a killer feature - checking for a newer version online isn't much of a pain, actually I personally kind of like the excitement to see for myself if there's a new version available. Whether announced by email or looking in the Store directly.
Please don't see my post as a rant against SDC or Stardock working hard in making it a high quality tool; everyone who's using it and is happy with it, please continue doing so.
So who wants to try to persuade me (as a long time user of Stardock software) to install Stardock Central and use it in stead of the Store? Please keep in mind that eventually also this version of SDC probably will be replaced by another app store (in view of upcoming Windows 8).