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Disclaimer: I'm the author/maintainer for AppGet [0]. What you explained here is one of the main selling points (as in convincing, appget is completely free) f

by kayone 8y ago

Disclaimer: I'm the author/maintainer for AppGet [0]. What you explained here is one of the main selling points (as in convincing, appget is completely free) for appget. AppGet pretty much automates what you explained here and more. We automatically download and validate SHA256 of downloads (We have a strict policy of only allowing releases from the official source) All package info that is used to install applications are fully public in our GitHub repository [1] (think homebrew) Also, for less tech-savvy users, they can install applications through our gallery e.g. https://appget.net/packages/i/chrome https://appget.net/packages/i/chrome using appget as long as they have appget installed on the machine. [0] https://appget.net https://appget.net [1] https://github.com/appget/appget.packages/tree/master/manifests https://github.com/appget/appget.packages/tree/master/manife...

flamtap 8y ago
I use Chocolatey right now. Are there any particular advantages that AppGet offers over Chocolatey?
- kayone 8y ago
  There are a few :) AppGet doesn't use custom scripts on install; everything is defined by data (YAML files). The client uses the data in the manifest and knows how to deal with different installers. This alone makes appget more secure; if you trust the client (it's opensource and managed by the core team) you don't blindly run a PowerShell script as admin on your machine. Also, adding/updating packages is trivial since all you need to do is update/create a very simple YAML file. Another benefit is we can upgrade the client to better deal with let's say MSI installers, and none of the manifests need to be updated since all the logic is in the client, the manifest only needs to identify itself as MSI. This also means you can install an app in different interactivity levels, Silent (everything happens in the background), Passive (you see the installer and progress, but you don't have to click next or do anything) or Interactive (appget downloads and validates the installer and just launches it for you, but you can run through the installer and customized it as you see fit) Our packages are more up-to-date. We have a crawler that checks for updates on regular bases, we use GitHub api, and check vendor sites constantly (over 500K of check events per day). Trivial updates are automatically pushed to the repository, For non-trivial ones the bot automatically creates a pull-request on GitHub to be reviewed by a human. Most cases we pickup updated releases for apps within hours. AppGet can list, upgrade and uninstall apps that aren't even installed using appget. We check windows installer database as the source of truth. You can download appget right now, run "appget outdated" and I guarantee it'll find outdated apps for you. I'm sure there are more things, this question comes up a lot, so I'm gonna spend some time and add a page to the documentation just for this.
  - kakarot 8y ago
    Chocolatey completely turned me off from Windows package managers. I'm sure you're familiar with all of the sore points that make it more hassle than it's worth. But your description of AppGet has convinced me to try it out. Thank you! Edit: There seems to be no obvious way to globally set the install location for apps. This is critical for my setup, I don't install apps in Program Files, because my Windows partition is lean and on an ssd that is shared with other VMs. Apps are installed in another drive location. Is there any way to do this currently?
    - kayone 8y ago
      Thanks for the feedback, right now there is no global way to set this. However, I just created a GitHub issue for it https://github.com/appget/appget/issues/14 https://github.com/appget/appget/issues/14 In the meantime, what you can do as a workaround, is to use `-i` param when installing apps to launch the installer in interactive mode. That will let you run through the installer and customize everything including the install location. I know it's not ideal, but if you want to use appget to automatically download, validate the installers and check for outdated apps, it might be a reasonable work-around.
      - kakarot 8y ago
        Still a good enough workaround to leverage the benefits of the trusted repository. Thanks for the tip! Definitely interested in seeing #14 get addressed :)
  - flamtap 8y ago
    Thanks so much for the response, and I am sure it does get asked a lot. I will be sure to keep an eye on your project in the future!
mamurphy 8y ago
Is there a readme on the website, github, or elsewhere? Do you have a plan to monetize AppGet?
- kayone 8y ago
  you can read the documentation at https://docs.appget.net https://docs.appget.net As far as monetization, we do have plans for a paid offering, internally we are calling it "AppGet for Fleets" it'll be to manage/monitor app installation on a group of computers remotely using a hosted dashboard (SaaS offering). AppGet as you see today and all of its stand-alone features will remain free and opensource.

by kayone 8y ago

flamtap 8y ago

I use Chocolatey right now. Are there any particular advantages that AppGet offers over Chocolatey?

kayone 8y ago
There are a few :) AppGet doesn't use custom scripts on install; everything is defined by data (YAML files). The client uses the data in the manifest and knows how to deal with different installers. This alone makes appget more secure; if you trust the client (it's opensource and managed by the core team) you don't blindly run a PowerShell script as admin on your machine. Also, adding/updating packages is trivial since all you need to do is update/create a very simple YAML file. Another benefit is we can upgrade the client to better deal with let's say MSI installers, and none of the manifests need to be updated since all the logic is in the client, the manifest only needs to identify itself as MSI. This also means you can install an app in different interactivity levels, Silent (everything happens in the background), Passive (you see the installer and progress, but you don't have to click next or do anything) or Interactive (appget downloads and validates the installer and just launches it for you, but you can run through the installer and customized it as you see fit) Our packages are more up-to-date. We have a crawler that checks for updates on regular bases, we use GitHub api, and check vendor sites constantly (over 500K of check events per day). Trivial updates are automatically pushed to the repository, For non-trivial ones the bot automatically creates a pull-request on GitHub to be reviewed by a human. Most cases we pickup updated releases for apps within hours. AppGet can list, upgrade and uninstall apps that aren't even installed using appget. We check windows installer database as the source of truth. You can download appget right now, run "appget outdated" and I guarantee it'll find outdated apps for you. I'm sure there are more things, this question comes up a lot, so I'm gonna spend some time and add a page to the documentation just for this.
- kakarot 8y ago
  Chocolatey completely turned me off from Windows package managers. I'm sure you're familiar with all of the sore points that make it more hassle than it's worth. But your description of AppGet has convinced me to try it out. Thank you! Edit: There seems to be no obvious way to globally set the install location for apps. This is critical for my setup, I don't install apps in Program Files, because my Windows partition is lean and on an ssd that is shared with other VMs. Apps are installed in another drive location. Is there any way to do this currently?
  - kayone 8y ago
    Thanks for the feedback, right now there is no global way to set this. However, I just created a GitHub issue for it https://github.com/appget/appget/issues/14 https://github.com/appget/appget/issues/14 In the meantime, what you can do as a workaround, is to use `-i` param when installing apps to launch the installer in interactive mode. That will let you run through the installer and customize everything including the install location. I know it's not ideal, but if you want to use appget to automatically download, validate the installers and check for outdated apps, it might be a reasonable work-around.
    - kakarot 8y ago
      Still a good enough workaround to leverage the benefits of the trusted repository. Thanks for the tip! Definitely interested in seeing #14 get addressed :)
- flamtap 8y ago
  Thanks so much for the response, and I am sure it does get asked a lot. I will be sure to keep an eye on your project in the future!

mamurphy 8y ago

Is there a readme on the website, github, or elsewhere? Do you have a plan to monetize AppGet?

kayone 8y ago
you can read the documentation at https://docs.appget.net https://docs.appget.net As far as monetization, we do have plans for a paid offering, internally we are calling it "AppGet for Fleets" it'll be to manage/monitor app installation on a group of computers remotely using a hosted dashboard (SaaS offering). AppGet as you see today and all of its stand-alone features will remain free and opensource.