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by munificent 4129 days ago
The name is silly, but it makes sense. Google Play is effectively a package manager. "Google Play for Work" is an enterprise-controlled package manager.
1 comments

Oh yes, it makes perfect sense if you ignore the fact that "Google Play is a package manager" doesn't make any sense. Google Play should be a thing on which you play, not manage packages.

It could have been called "Google Package Manager for Work."

> "Google Play is a package manager" doesn't make any sense.

It makes totally sense. Google Play is a package manager like apt-get, npm, etc. and Play is a nice name which covers many uses case since it's a playful synonym for "start" or "to start something": "start a game", "start a program", "start an app" or "start work"

The term 'package manager' would be to long and is not learned among the mainstream but again it's exactly this, check Wikipedia:

"A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing software packages for a computer's operating system in a consistent manner. It typically maintains a database of software dependencies and version information to prevent software mismatches and missing prerequisites."

https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=9111350&goto=item%3Fid...

On a side note. In a system where "app"/"app store" can be trademarked. We are long past the sense/nonsense debate. So they named it the play store.

Now they had to name an app store for work why not name it "play $anything"?, doesn't matter.