Eero Ahonen wrote:
> Somehow I can't think Google as software repository, but I might be too 
> technical thinker (oslt) for that.

It's not. It's a link repository. :-)  I think if you actually wanted to 
*store* all the software ever written for Windows, you'd be looking at 
an even larger expenditure.

> Actually I'm starting to think it could be a good programming practice 
> :-). Software developers (possibly others, too, but it could create some 
> problems) could enter the version, URL of the package, name of the 
> executable and what versions of Windows it works for (ie. via the web). 
> The software could sync this list either when told or by a schedule and 
> when told, get the package and run the installer.

It's ... pretty trivial to do that sort of code these days. Not really 
much practice, unless you've never done that sort of thing before. :-)

> Yes, there's still problem of getting software to the reposity.

If you can standardize the formats coming in, it wouldn't be hard. Just 
put the "browse" button in.

Next up: let the owner of the software take it down. Hire lawyers to 
defend you against people uploading illegal software. Etc.

>> Actually, it was pretty common in the earlier days. And DirectX always 
>> came with the software. 
> 
> Yes, I remember DX coming with lot of games (I also remember that some 
> games insisted to have older DX installed and that created problems). I 
> don't remember .NET coming with any other software (OTOH I haven't 
> installed a lot of .NET -software, just some).

Print Shop 2.0 did, for one. Lots of them just checked to see if it was 
installed, and if not, silently installed it for you off the CD. Kind of 
funky, but I can see their point.

> Actually I don't recall seeing one even once. I'm getting more and more 
> sure that we are mostly using different software on Windows ;).

It certainly sounds that way.   I don't tend to install a whole lot of 
ametuer-ware. Some, but not a lot.  Mostly little utilities more than 
packages complex enough to need something like .NET.

>> Fair enough. And sure, having a nice interface to a repository in that 
>> sense is a good thing. 
> 
> Yep, it would be freaking great IMO ;).

Go for it. ;-)

> Umm... I don't get this. There's loads and loads of free software using 
> such systems in Linux -world, so I don't straight away believe that the 
> amount of free Win-software would be a problem.

So, you think sourceforge.net doesn't have financial difficulties? :-) 
And, honestly, I think there's *tons* more (admittedly crappy) software 
for Windows than Linux. Pick some random utility - convert OGG to MP3, 
for example, or printing barcodes (as two recent examples of mine). How 
many versions do you think are distributed for something like this for 
compared to for Linux? Google the expression, and see how many of the 
top hits you go through before you find a version for Linux. (Or look 
for that expression in your Linux repository, and see how many hits you 
see, if you don't think google gives you good Linux results.)

There's lots of decent software in Linux. There's *tons* of crappy 
software for Windows, and no good way of sorting out which is which.

Now, if you ran a "windows repository" that had only the well-written 
utilities, I'd pay to access that. :-)

>> unless it's GPL so you can recompile it yourself to make it play along.
> 
> Hmm.. Why would it need to be recompiled? 

Well, repackaged. If all you get is "setup.exe" and everything's wrapped 
up in that, you're going to have trouble distributing it yourself in a 
package manager. Or if you get dozens of files as on a CD, you'll also 
have a bit of trouble there. I guess you could do what RPMs do, and wrap 
up everything with a script that runs afterwards to put stuff in the 
right place and register it in the registry. Kind of a bummer if it's an 
old setup.exe that reboots your machine at the end of the setup, before 
your package manager can record its successful installation.

I'm sure if you took 500 Windows packages that you can download right 
now, you'd find at least 100 you'd need to rework in some way to make 
them register their presence in *your* package manager. :-)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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