Download & install

1. Get the file

Both installers come from the same download server the app itself updates from, so the file on the download page and the file an update fetches are the same file. No licence key is needed to download; the key activates the app after it is installed.

macOS is not published yet. A build exists, but it is not signed or notarised, and an unsigned Mac app is enough of an obstacle that publishing one would be worse than waiting.

2. Why your computer warns you

Shipown is not code-signed. A signing certificate is a yearly bill, and while this is a small product that money goes into building it instead. A signature would not change anything the app does — it only puts a company name in the warning box instead of “unknown publisher”.

What proves a file is ours is the checksum in section 5, which is the same number the in-app updater checks before it installs anything. A signature is a claim; a checksum is something you can verify yourself.

3. Install on Windows

1. 1
   Keep the download

   Chrome and Edge may say the file is not commonly downloaded, because few people have downloaded this exact build yet. Open the … menu beside the download and choose Keep, then Keep anyway.

2. 2
   Run it, and pass SmartScreen

   A blue box appears: Windows protected your PC, with Unknown publisher. Click More info, then Run anyway. That box is SmartScreen reporting that it does not recognise the publisher — not that it found anything wrong with the file.

3. 3
   Let it install

   There is nothing to choose: the installer writes to your own user account at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\push-ops, asks for no administrator password, and opens the app when it finishes. Its settings live in %APPDATA%\push-ops, which an update never touches.

4. Install on Linux

1. 1
   Install the package

   Debian and Ubuntu take the downloaded package directly:

   sudo apt install ./shipown-amd64.deb

   Some graphical software centres refuse a local file, which is why the terminal is the short way. On a system without apt: sudo dpkg -i ./shipown-amd64.deb, then sudo apt -f install if it asks for dependencies.

2. 2
   Start it

   It appears in your applications as Shipown, or run push-ops from a terminal. Settings live in ~/.config/push-ops.

Saved server passwords and keys are encrypted through your desktop keyring. On a machine with no keyring — a bare server, some minimal desktops — Shipown refuses to save a secret rather than writing it in the clear, and asks once per session instead.

5. Check the file is the one we published

Run this where the file downloaded and compare the result with the number below. If they do not match, do not install it — and tell us.

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA512 .\Shipown-Setup.exe

sha512sum shipown-amd64.deb

6. Activate

The app opens on its activation screen. Paste the licence key that was emailed to you when you bought or requested one, and it activates against the licence server. Lost the key? Sign in to your account to see it, or generate a new one — the old key stops working the moment you do, while computers already activated keep running.

A licence covers a number of devices and a number of people. Activating a second computer uses a second device; both stay signed in.

7. Updates, and uninstalling

Shipown checks for a new version by itself and shows what changed before anything is installed. The download happens inside the app with a progress bar, is checked against the SHA-512 published beside it, and only then installs — on Windows the installer runs and the app restarts; on Linux the package is handed to your desktop’s package installer and the next launch is the new version. Nothing is ever opened in a browser.

To remove it: on Windows, Apps & features → Shipown → Uninstall; on Linux, sudo apt remove push-ops. Your settings folder is left alone, so reinstalling finds your servers again. Delete it by hand if you want it gone.

8. If something goes wrong