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Appnews.net - A new collaboration between some of our favorite software bloggers

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Rarst:
There are huge differences between how Windows and Linux handles software installation.

There are at least four basic way software gets installed in Windows:

* native MS setup package (MSI)
* third party setup package (like Inno or NSIS)
* archive (one of like dozen types)
* weird homebrew installer someone thought would be cool to make
It is seriously hard to make unified installation and update process with this mess. Most Windows updaters go the way of repackaging software which naturally inflates their bandwidth bill and limits choice of titles they can offer. Not even mentioning that lots of developers (even freeware) forbid repackaging and redistributing.

It is interesting (even if hopeless in my opinion) computing task to tackle, but I fear out of Appnews scope. :)

y0himba:
I like this site, seriously.  I use the RSS feed in Astra, very useful.  :Thmbsup:

Nutty:
I know there are some attempts for windows to track updates to installed software (can't remember the name now!).
-urlwolf (May 02, 2009, 03:40 AM)
--- End quote ---

Here's a review of some of them on Gizmo's Freeware.

I've used Software Informer, one mentioned briefly as "annoying" in the Other Software Update Monitors category.  (It was bundled with Free Download Manager.)  I do concur with his complaints, but where his top pick boasts "More than 60,000" apps, Software Informer has "661,469" programs in its database.  Of course, it relies far more on the "1,388,362" users to keep things updated with reviews, working download links, etc... but I like the decentralized model.

But I agree, none of these can hold a candle to apt.  And for the reasons Rarst mentions, it's not likely they ever will.

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