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Do unix-style software repositories solve this problem? I mean, is there anything preventing package updates from modifying other parts of the OS as part of an

• archangel_one 16y ago
  The system I'm most familiar with is Gentoo's Portage; that implements file collision checks so packages can't straight-up modify existing bits of the system, but often plugins are separate packages which executables enumerate somehow so this kind of thing certainly could be done. I assume apt and other things would be fairly similar. I suspect the biggest advantage there (which isn't fundamentally to do with the repo system) is that you can complain to Ubuntu or whoever and they're rather more likely to put a stop to something like this than Microsoft or Apple are.
• astine 16y ago
  In practice, there is nothing you can really do to prevent software running as root from installing whatever it wants. If you are going to install software using a company's installer, you'd better trust that company. Linux and BSD package managers can avoid this issue by replacing the original installer completely, but often times a package is just a thin wrapper around the company's own installer, in which case the problem is doubly hidden.