6 ms·

My issue with updates/downloading is the lack of software manager to updates software in Windows. It was a pain to go to various websites to download a package

My issue with updates/downloading is the lack of software manager to updates software in Windows. It was a pain to go to various websites to download a package and install/upgrade a updated version. Back then when I have Win 98SE, I relied on FileHippo to scan and provide information if there are updates for my installed software. In XP and Win7, I only update software that have issue or something that I need to check. It was nice for some software that come with their own updater. I was thinking about my experienxe with Ubuntu (Ibex version) with their apt-get and the package manager. To my surprise, there are package managers for Windows, Chocolatey and Scoop. This was before Windows Store come to fruitation. Chocolatey is my main package manager for my Windows and I had been using it ever since. This allows me to have a peace of mind for me to updates my software particularly command line tools, Chocolatey made it easy for me and automate the environment variables for me if the software needs it. And no more for me to open up Google and search for the name of the software, `choco search <app_name>` and it will give me a list of the software and I just install from there. I use `choco upgrade all -y` and it just handles it without needing my input further.

WorldMaker 3y ago
Starting with certain updates to Windows 10 there's also `winget` now out of the box installed as an alternative to both Chocolatey and Scoop. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/wi...
- jmrm 3y ago
  The best thing about 'winget' is being able to have a powershell/batch script in you usb stick to install the last version of most of the software you use. The only 'requirement' to use winget is updating Microsoft Store after installing Windows and install 'App Installer' from the Store, at least in Windows 10.
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    I've been slowly digging into Winget Configuration [0] since I started exploring the Dev Home (Preview) app on Windows 11. I still have too many machines that can't upgrade to 11 right now, but Winget Configuration seems a real neat way to bootstrap new machines. (I know that you can use Winget Configuration on Windows 10 without the Dev Home UI, but the UI is one of the more compelling things about it, I think.) [0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/configuration/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/co...
- Isthatablackgsd 3y ago
  Winget is great package manager. I am staying with Chocoately due to WinGet have less software in their catalogue. WinGet are missing software that I regularly use in my Windows that I am able to get it through Chocoately. It missing some like mupdf, TeX Live, Tixati, Q-Dir, Emulators, UMLs, etc. Through it have MiKTeX but I was burned by miktex's package update procedure weirdness.
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    The workflow to submit new packages seems easy enough, it's a simple PR process to a GitHub repo [0], if you want to try to help fix that. The big thing is that winget requires "proper" MSI or MSIX-backed installers (MSIX, MSI, APPX, and most .exe installers) rather than scripts so given the list you've provided some of what you may need is to better help some of the upstream packages clean up their installers/fix bugs in their installers on Windows. (Package update weirdness sounds like a common class of installer bug, sadly.) That installer focus is one of the things I like and trust about winget. For the most part it is really easy to verify that winget isn't automating much more than what you could do by hand: it is often grabbing the exact same installer you'd go to someone's website to grab, validating hashes for that installer, then running it (in silent mode). One of the reasons I gave up on Chocalatey years ago was too many "packages" were complex PowerShell scripts and I started feeling like I needed to audit every single one (and every version of it) before running it. Some of the "common" packages were full of opinionated scripts that were doing way too much, and some of the uncommon scripts would sometimes have malware in their scripts (and that may be a late change after years of good scripts, too); I reported it every time I saw it, but at some point you report too many and you lose trust in the whole ecosystem. At the moment trusting winget is still quite a bit easier, even after the burnout I had from choco. [0] https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs
    - majkinetor 3y ago
      That's also what is bad about winget - not having scripting language. AFAIK there were 0 incidents with choco scripts, they are mostly trivial to review (choco also has team of reviewers and no package can be published without being reviewed) and many tools simply can't be installed without PowerShell - the idea of "help some of the upstream packages clean up their installers" is irrational and unrealistic - some of those tools may be even done with the upgrades, which doesn't mean they shouldn't get a package. Furthermore, many choco packages are embedded and contain the software, which means they can be cached (artifactory, nexus etc.) do not depend on vendor location and can work forever (like development dependencies). All of this makes winget vastly inferior to choco at this moment and suitable for hobby/home use, not serious things like maintaining CI/CD pipeline. Choco package number and speed of update is on par with Arch. The good thing about winget is it comes with Windows, which is probably the only one at this point.

WorldMaker 3y ago

Starting with certain updates to Windows 10 there's also `winget` now out of the box installed as an alternative to both Chocolatey and Scoop. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/wi...

jmrm 3y ago
The best thing about 'winget' is being able to have a powershell/batch script in you usb stick to install the last version of most of the software you use. The only 'requirement' to use winget is updating Microsoft Store after installing Windows and install 'App Installer' from the Store, at least in Windows 10.
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  I've been slowly digging into Winget Configuration [0] since I started exploring the Dev Home (Preview) app on Windows 11. I still have too many machines that can't upgrade to 11 right now, but Winget Configuration seems a real neat way to bootstrap new machines. (I know that you can use Winget Configuration on Windows 10 without the Dev Home UI, but the UI is one of the more compelling things about it, I think.) [0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/configuration/ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/co...
Isthatablackgsd 3y ago
Winget is great package manager. I am staying with Chocoately due to WinGet have less software in their catalogue. WinGet are missing software that I regularly use in my Windows that I am able to get it through Chocoately. It missing some like mupdf, TeX Live, Tixati, Q-Dir, Emulators, UMLs, etc. Through it have MiKTeX but I was burned by miktex's package update procedure weirdness.
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  The workflow to submit new packages seems easy enough, it's a simple PR process to a GitHub repo [0], if you want to try to help fix that. The big thing is that winget requires "proper" MSI or MSIX-backed installers (MSIX, MSI, APPX, and most .exe installers) rather than scripts so given the list you've provided some of what you may need is to better help some of the upstream packages clean up their installers/fix bugs in their installers on Windows. (Package update weirdness sounds like a common class of installer bug, sadly.) That installer focus is one of the things I like and trust about winget. For the most part it is really easy to verify that winget isn't automating much more than what you could do by hand: it is often grabbing the exact same installer you'd go to someone's website to grab, validating hashes for that installer, then running it (in silent mode). One of the reasons I gave up on Chocalatey years ago was too many "packages" were complex PowerShell scripts and I started feeling like I needed to audit every single one (and every version of it) before running it. Some of the "common" packages were full of opinionated scripts that were doing way too much, and some of the uncommon scripts would sometimes have malware in their scripts (and that may be a late change after years of good scripts, too); I reported it every time I saw it, but at some point you report too many and you lose trust in the whole ecosystem. At the moment trusting winget is still quite a bit easier, even after the burnout I had from choco. [0] https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs
  - majkinetor 3y ago
    That's also what is bad about winget - not having scripting language. AFAIK there were 0 incidents with choco scripts, they are mostly trivial to review (choco also has team of reviewers and no package can be published without being reviewed) and many tools simply can't be installed without PowerShell - the idea of "help some of the upstream packages clean up their installers" is irrational and unrealistic - some of those tools may be even done with the upgrades, which doesn't mean they shouldn't get a package. Furthermore, many choco packages are embedded and contain the software, which means they can be cached (artifactory, nexus etc.) do not depend on vendor location and can work forever (like development dependencies). All of this makes winget vastly inferior to choco at this moment and suitable for hobby/home use, not serious things like maintaining CI/CD pipeline. Choco package number and speed of update is on par with Arch. The good thing about winget is it comes with Windows, which is probably the only one at this point.