Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 15th Mar 2009 12:46 UTC
PolishLinux has an editorial on program installation on Linux systems, and even though it's a bit hard to wade through (the author's native language sure isn't English) it does make a number of very good points in favour of the way most Linux systems handle things. Still, as always in the discussion on program installation, it always feels a bit like listening to a discussion between a deaf and a blind man about whose condition is the easiest to live with.
Thread beginning with comment 353276
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2008-04-29
I'm afraid I don't get it, no. We can't expect Microsoft and Apple to cooperate and create a unified package format that will work for both systems, because it's not in their interests.
However, the open source community has a *huge* interest in creating a packaging standard that will work across many systems. Consider Firefox extensions -- one zipped file that may contain not just javascript, but compiled binary components. One extension file can contain the binary components for as many systems as you care to support. It wouldn't be that hard to create a similar format for linux-based distro applications. This would obviously be of little use for system software, but for applications, it makes installation very easy.
In my opinion, an application bundle system should be created that can work alongside a package manager. Both paradigms are required for a truly elegant experience.