----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh Sled" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: Article: Windows User uses Linux
> 2. Installing software - Synaptic, and the central software
> repository in general, rocks. There are more software packages included
> with Ubuntu than >> most users would ever need. They cover a
wide array of uses from entertainment to productivity AND, in the
vast majority of cases, searching the internet and downloading an
installer is the
foreign way of doing things. It took me a while
to get this one, but now that I have it, I love it and Windows will
most likely never have it.
*cough*
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2009/01/21/is-microsoft-working-on-a-software-center-for-windows
*cough*
:)
Oh! Very cool, if it is useful/usable that is. Of course if it is an
integral part of the OS then it probably will be both.
As for the installation, most people are conditioned to go to the
software producer to get the software they produce. They're not wrong,
that's pretty logical. Asking some effectively third party (the
OS/distro) for the software is … counter-intuitive.
Sorry for not being more clear, it was a long day. I meant that in the
context of apt, yum, synaptic, etc... that the search/find/download/install
model was foreign, not that it was wrong.
This is something a group like FreeDesktop.Org should be helping to
solve. A way for a software producer to provide a link/file that the
distros basically agree upon that will Do The Right Thing: either
automagically search in synaptic, or select between the appropriate
.{rpm,yum,sh}, &c. I've seen "solutions" like autopackage and zero
install, but they are fail.
A hybrid installer/updater that provides system services to keep
packages installed, uninstallable and up-to-date is becoming one of the
next big (overdue) Operating System features.
--
...jsled
http://asynchronous.org/ - a=jsled; b=asynchronous.org; echo $...@${b}
