Did anyone install additional applications?
UPDATE: Nate the Great pointed out that you change the settings for 3rd party apps, and download app. When I did so, and clicked on downloaded file, the package installer took over, and now the new icon is showing on the menu in the LCD screen.

Bluebrain rooted Alex (one sunny sunday afternoon ). No one else has talked about adding applications. I want a simple text editor -- would I download apk file to my laptop and transfer it over? Would I download it directly from Alex's browser? I cannot see a usr/applications folder anywhere on the SD. I know the OS is over on the "hard-drive" of the Alex, but I see no way to access it without rooting the Alex.

*Note: Using Terminal on my macbook, the SD card is on /Volumes/ALEX, and the directory reads:
my-macbook:~ userid$ ls -a /Volumes/ALEX/
. .Trashes .fseventsd Music Video
.. ._.Trashes DCIM Pictures eBooks



Music/Video/Pictures/eBooks correspond to the icons on LCD display of Music/YouTube/Gallery/Library. The .Trashes folder contains files I've deleted. Presumably these will be deleted next time I turn off the Alex.

DCIM and .fseventsd were probably added when I mounted the SD card on my macbook. The DCIM folder might have been added by my iPhoto program which thought I was connecting a camera and automatically opened (until I changed the prefs). The .fseventsd folder contains one file, /fseventsd-uuid, which contains a 32 digit line of alpha-numeric text. According to google, .fseventsd is an OS X file extension, so my macbook probably added this file when I mounted the SD card.

But there is no directory to add user applications on the SD card.
A few suggestions here on finding apps without going to marketplace

http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-find-android-apps
You have to download it from a web page, unfortunately.

From what I can tell, you can't copy an install file over the USB. The Alex won't see it. Also, the Alex won't open email attachments (so you can't email the apk to yourself).

Or, you might want to go find a file manager app. It will see the apk files, and clicking on one should start the install process.
I know this is an old topic, although I thought I´ll give it a try.
I have the Alex with firmware 1.5 (it´s from Papyre, you can find it on their section at grammata.es for downloading). With this one, you can download 3rd party apps from both the browser included (even though this doesn´t work all the time) and from the computer (copy to SD card and then use a file manager -like ES file explorer- to install them).
So, yeap.
I myself installed just a couple, due mainly to the fact that my Alex comes with an absurd internal memory of 24mb, which doesn´t leave much space for other apps apart from the ones coming by default.
BTW, if anyone knows what of those apps can be uninstalled without causing any trouble, it´d be appreciate to know (what the hell are wifitest, burningtest and all the other *test for anyway?)