Zero Install, the decentralised cross-distribution software installation system, announced 0install 1.0 today, after 8 years in development. 0install allows software developers to publish programs directly from their own web-sites, while supporting features familiar from centralised distribution repositories such as shared libraries, automatic updates and digital signatures. It complements, rather than replaces, the OS's package management. As well as allowing developers to create a single package that works across Linux, BSDs, Mac OS X and Windows, it could help make software available on more minor platforms. OSNews covered decentralised installation systems in 2007.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2007-09-06
So it's more of a distro independent packaging format that builds out it's own directory tree when the distro does not provide a dependency. That could be very intersting.
The other side of it may be how cleanly it managed uninstall but as a package manager that should really just be a matter of dragging dependencies back out if no longer needed by another zeroinstall package. It could offload the work to the distro package manager when applicable too so it's not duplicating the effort to maintain which packages need what dependencies.
For me, it's all about the minimal dependencies. Enough minimal install to get past the first boot then a very select list of packages which minimize the dependencies they drag in.
Granted, some of my more interesting toys need to be pulled in by subversion. Currently my update script does the distro packages then the svn branches so adding a third line for zeroinstall packages would be no biggy.
Member since:2005-09-17
One interesting thing is that when you "install" a program, you're actually creating a launcher that runs 0launch. For example, to add a shell command "rox" to run ROX-Filer, you can do:
$ 0alias rox http://rox.sourceforge.net/2005/interfaces/ROX-Filer
That creates a script (e.g. ~/bin/rox):
#!/bin/sh
exec 0launch http://rox.sourceforge.net/2005/interfaces/ROX-Filer "$@"
0launch doesn't care whether the program is installed or not. It selects the best version of ROX-Filer, checks the cache, and downloads anything that's missing. So, I can take my little ~/bin directory to another machine and all my programs are available (installed lazily the first time I run them). And that works even if I move from e.g. a 64-bit system to a 32-bit one, or from Linux to FreeBSD.
(note: that doesn't mean it uses the network every time you run "rox"... if everything needed is already cached then it runs immediately)
Of course, you can also take the cache (~/.cache/0install.net) with you if you have more space or a slower network, or a shared network home directory. You can share a single cache between different architectures without problems. e.g. ROX-Filer would be downloaded again if you moved from Linux to FreeBSD because it's a C program (Linux and FreeBSD binaries would coexist in the cache), but Python programs would be shared automatically.
Edited 2011-05-26 12:38 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.
Almost exactly three years ago, I wrote about why OSNews was no longer OSNews: the alternative operating system scene had died, and OSNews, too, had to go with the times and move towards reporting on a new wave of operating systems - mobile, and all the repercussions that the explosion of smartphones and tablets have caused. Still, I was wondering something today: why aren't we seeing alternative operating systems on mobile?
Member since:
2005-09-17
That's a good question. What happens is that each program specifies what it needs in its XML "feed". For example, a program that requires libexpat1 >= 2.0 might say:
<pre>
<requires interface="http://repo.roscidus.com/lib/expat1">
<version not-before="2.0"/>
</requires>
</pre>
The expat feed says where to download various versions of the library, and also gives the name of the distribution package for various distributions (actually, the feed currently only gives one package name).
If you run the program on a system where the distribution's package of libexpat1 is installed and has version >= 2.0 then it will use that.
If libexpat isn't installed through the distribution (or it's too old) then 0install may download a newer version to the 0install cache and run the program using that (without affecting other programs, which continue to use the distribution's version).
Or, it might use PackageKit to install or upgrade the distribution package, if a suitable version is available (requires confirmation and admin access).
As the author of the program, all you need to know is that you require libexpat1 >= 2.0. You don't need to know the different names that different distributions use, or whether a 0install package for it will be used.