AppStream's patented technology begins by streaming only a small portion of an application's code base down to your desktop — just enough to launch the application so you can begin to work with it, letting you start to work with the application in seconds, much more quickly than if the entire application had to be transferred up-front (the traditional way software is distributed over the Internet). Then, once the application is running on your desktop, AppStream responds to your activity, dynamically streaming additional application code as you activate other application features.
NOTE: If you select the "Install on my computer" option when streaming an application, then the entire code base will be streamed to your computer, starting with the part of the code base that launches the application so you can begin to work with it immediately, while the rest of the application is streamed in the background. If you select "one-time-only", then application code will be streamed to you on demand, as described above. It is possible that you will never stream the entire code base if you select this option — in most cases, as users only use a small percentage of any application, AppStream needs to stream less than ten percent of the application to support end user needs.
What's more, when an application is updated — a frequent occurrence with open source applications — the updated code (and only the updated code) is streamed to your computer, replacing or augmenting the outdated code, just like operating system patching. Each time you launch the application, AppStream compares your application code with the application code currently on the server, discovering updates that are streamed while the application is in use.
Despite this approach, to the end user applications streamed using AppStream technology behave identically to applications that are fully-installed by conventional means — streamed applications interact with the operating system and other installed applications and resources just as if they had been installed traditionally!
Learn more about AppStream's Streaming Technology.
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