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Domain: autopackage.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to autopackage.org.

Stories · 6

  1. Autopackage Universal Package Manager

    Tech · Gui · · posted by Zonk · from the i-love-packaging-managers dept. · 73 comments
    nanday writes "I currently have an article on Linux.com about Autopackage. Autopackage is developing a universal package manager for the GNU/Linux desktop, separate from the package management for the system. It includes installation for individual users, a lot of concern for interface design and documentation, and some ideas about the future of package management that are sure to raise some debate." From the article: "Besides ... technical problems, the Autopackage team believes that managing system and desktop software together is a mistake. It requires developers to pay attention to desktop applications that are of secondary importance to them, and confuses end users with problems about dependencies and upgrades." Linux.com is a sister site to Slashdot. (say that three times fast)

  2. Best Cross-Distro Installation Tools for Linux?

    Ask · Software · · posted by Cliff · from the one-installer-to-bind-them dept. · 61 comments
    swillden asks: "I need to package up some commercial Linux software for multiple distributions (Red Hat Enterprise 3 and 4, Fedora, Novell Desktop, SuSE Professional and Enterprise, Mandrake and Debian), and I'm wondering what tools others have found useful. The software is closed source and needs to be very easy to install. This has been an ongoing problem for commercial software on Linux for some time. Has there been any progress?" "So far, the options I'm looking into are:
    1. Create distribution-specific packages using each distribution's tools. Nice in lots of ways, but a lot of work for ~11 different distributions.
    2. Use a commercial cross-distro installer like InstallShield. This is what the previous developers chose.
    3. Use one of the open source cross-distro installers, like autopackage or Loki.
    4. Write a custom installer.
    I really would like to provide distro-specific packages, to make use of the native dependency management solutions and to make the software fit nicely into each system, but implementing, testing and supporting all of those installers may be too costly. It may also exclude any other Linux distributions unnecessarily.

    I don't like the current InstallShield installer for multiple reasons. First, it's written in Java which is fine except that it can only run if a JRE is present. Requiring users to install a JRE so they can run the installer to install a (non-Java) product is really annoying. Also, it doesn't really know how to do any proper dependency management, so the developers had to take the approach of installing everything that might be required, often duplicating tools that might already be on the system, and sometimes even creating conflicts. Obviously this approach doesn't integrate with the native package management at all.

    The Loki installer has some of the same limitations as InstallShield, but it doesn't require Java and it's very scriptable, so I could probably write code to do the dependency checking and be smarter about what to install.

    Autopackage looks very interesting, and I'm going to take all of the docs with me to read on a flight this afternoon. However, I'm concerned that it may be unstable, as it's just reached a 1.0 release.

    Finally, I could always just write an installer from scratch, but that may be even more work than creating all the distro-specific packages."

  3. AutoPackaging for Linux

    Linux · Announcements · · posted by Zonk · from the automagically dept. · 623 comments
    Isak Savo writes "The next generation packaging format for Linux has reached 1.0. With Autopackage officially declared stable, there is now an easy way for developers to create up to date, easy installable packages. There are lots of screenshots available including a flash demo of a package installation."

  4. AutoPackaging for Linux

    Linux · Announcements · · posted by Zonk · from the automagically dept. · 623 comments
    Isak Savo writes "The next generation packaging format for Linux has reached 1.0. With Autopackage officially declared stable, there is now an easy way for developers to create up to date, easy installable packages. There are lots of screenshots available including a flash demo of a package installation."

  5. AutoPackaging for Linux

    Linux · Announcements · · posted by Zonk · from the automagically dept. · 623 comments
    Isak Savo writes "The next generation packaging format for Linux has reached 1.0. With Autopackage officially declared stable, there is now an easy way for developers to create up to date, easy installable packages. There are lots of screenshots available including a flash demo of a package installation."

  6. Software For Ransom

    Developers · Money · · posted by timothy · from the plain-unmarked-bills-and-no-funny-stuff dept. · 287 comments
    rbp writes "I just received a message from Adam Theo on the Jabber Developers Mailing List about what he calls "The Ransom Model" for software publishing. The principle, according to the above linked site, is that the "rights to the source code remain restricted until a set amount of money is collected or a set date passes, at which point the code is freed". Seems like a very interesting way to make money and produce free software. I think it's worth discussion. Take a look at the Ransom Model webpage and join the Ransom mailing list! (You might also be interested in recent news about Blender)" Reader Apreche adds a link to a Freshmeat editorial piece which draws on Theo's idea, writing "This has some obvious problems, but it is worth discussing. The biggest problem I see is where vaporware fits into the equation."