Slashdot Mirror
0install Reaches 2.0
tal197 writes "Zero Install, the decentralized cross-platform software installation system, announced 0install 2.0 today after 2 years in development. 0install allows authors to publish directly from their own web-sites, while supporting familiar features such as shared libraries, automatic updates, dependency handling and digital signatures. With more than one thousand packages now available, is this finally a viable platform?"
Perhaps they mean, as a viable alternative to whatever package management system (or "app store") is unique to your given OS/distro? If that's the case, then my answer would be, no.
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That's why you do a decision analysis.
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Not being familiar with it - why do you say "no"?
OK - it needs to have sufficient software, but aside form that, an much-platform software package manager sounds rather nice, compared to the usual "this is my playground and my playground ONLY" crap.
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That's 1/9th any kind of milestone I will accept as important or impressive. Come back later.
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Something about calling your installer platform "Zero install" seems disingenuous. :)
Though the summary mentions something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and that's shared libraries. 99.5% of the time when I have trouble getting something to work in linux it comes down to a nasty spaghetti-like mess of libraries and their recursive dependencies. Sometimes some pieces of software have difficulty coexisting because they depend on different versions of supporting libraries.
I understand that a lot of package managers do a lot of work to solve these problems but every modern Linux system I've used seems.. Fragile. As in it doesn't take much to topple the careful house of cards the package manager has constructed, and turn the whole install in to an unusable mess.
I understand the benefits of shared libraries, but storage space is dirt-cheap today and I think a lot of problems might be solved simply by letting lots of pieces of software bundle their favorite versions of dependent libraries. You know, the "app store" approach where each application lives in it's own sandboxed little world. I know there are security implications to having old libraries laying around, but sandboxing does seem to do a pretty good job at mitigating damage.
I know people have issues with Apple and their app store, but damn is it ever easy to download and run software. Which is the point of having a computer. Right?
As the third of tal197's four slashdot submissions was entitled "Zero Install Project Makes 1.0 Release", can I assume this is just an advertisement?
One look at the package list says it all.
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i think the parent was pointing out that apple is never going to allow a 3rd party package manager on ios. because of their success, it looks like the other players (ms, google, etc) are trying to get a similar ecosystem. So, while the project seems like a good idea, the bleak future may be devoid of platforms where such a project could be installed anyway.
It's similar in concept to a decentralized app store or repository. It sounds like a great idea. It sounds like it free your system from the "clutches" of your distro's repository.
But, like many other great ideas, it fails in the cold daylight of reality.
In order for it to work, the software developer has to not only publish their software on the Zero Install system, they have to publish their software for ALL the distros on it. But, we all know well that most software developers regard this as far too cumbersome an undertaking and will instead publish only a single or couple of binaries. That leaves out countless other distros and causes the Zero Install concept to fall apart.
But, there's another issue. Most distro repositories don't simply have 1,000 apps. They have multiple thousands of apps. And all of those apps are compiled specifically for that distro and therefore "guaranteed to work" with your distro.
Simply put Zero Install lacks enough apps, for enough different distros, for anyone to really care about it. It's a niche player in a shrinking pool.
I am reminded of an RPM based alternative package manager distro that was "so much better" and was adoopted by several big players. It might have had live kernel patching too. Yet I cannot remember the name or find it with my Google foo. It was supposed to change everything because it was so much better and, although I'm sure it's still around, "nobody" uses it.
The cross platform part is more a benefit for publishers. So if you're publishing a cross platform application, you can use this system to streamline the distribution process. Not a terrible idea though the majority of applications are not cross platform in the first place, so it's hard to see this system being used.
For publishing software directly from author's web-sites, while supporting familiar features such as shared libraries, automatic updates, dependency handling and digital signatures.
But you're just a typical naysayer, always naysaying.
The technology is interesting. It's fully decentralized, works even on Windows, offers Mac-style drag and drop images, uses a full SAT solver for dependency resolution...
What it needs is better marketing.
Sheesh. English is just as precise if you use it correctly. In some particular cases you may need to use a few more words. Words are free; don't be afraid. Anyway, if you want to be absolutely anal about precision, you want German, not French.
For "gratuit", just say "free of cost" or "free of charge".
For "libre" just say "free to inspect and modify the source".
Aw, your French pride is hurt just because you don't get to say, "Free as in beer".
Installs ok, haven't tried it out yet.
Wonder why it needs to remove "python3-aptdaemon.pkcompat" if it says it does its stuff without messing about with a system's libraries, tho.
Cross platform is also a major benefit to system administrators.
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Seems to help programmers a lot. They can publish on their own site a single set of files and specifications for all platforms to manage installation and package creation. Packaging teams can use it to make their life easier.
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