(Official) Windows Package Manager Just Announced

Software & Operating Systems Windows
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A long time coming.

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@wendell @SgtAwesomesauce im sure you’ll be interested

It’s released under the MIT license, the source code is here https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli

All versions of Windows 10 from 1709 onwards are supported.

I haven’t looked at the code yet, but I wonder if this could be used in isolated networks with our own repositories.

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It should work. On the Linux unplugged podcast there’s mention, that it will work for Microsoft Store AND 3rd party repositories.

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Will this have things like VCredist? wrong year, 32/64, version have been like a plague for things like EA origin

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No idea. It looks like you can submit package manifests for inclusion though

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What you’re referring to as windows is infact GNU/windows, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU+NT.

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Yes

You can search for available packages and display information using the show command. There are also commands to help with manifest creation and validation ( hash and validate ). Once the first third-party repository is published, you will be able to add that repository as a source as well. We’re providing documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/package-manager and both of the GitHub repositories

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This is pretty nice.
So this basically kinda makes the store obsolete?
Or are there still going to be limitations in regards to software package availability?

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Finally, a decent tool for the every day user. Every time I boot into Linux and I just type install to install whatever I need and I keep everything up to that from there it feels so quick and intuitive instead of having to go to every single company and download the software. I also hope that this package manager will help Windows to centralize program updates, just like on Linux.

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I think they’re keeping it. The primary difference seems to be the store is the easy consumer facing option. Where you can also buy games and such. The package manager is more configurable, probably more directed at enterprise. My dad is never going to use it for example.

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To be fair, nothing you said is what an every day user would say :smile: I don’t think any of us here would be classed as that.

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Haha well I know how smart and capable people are in the IT world, especially here, so that’s why I said “every day user”. Our ☭ everyday is sudo *** install ***.

OT aside, thanks for keeping us up to date!

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Yup of course there are going to keep the store.
Because in the end it will be more user friendly.
But i think that the cli package manager is really a great addition,
for the more advanced users and indeed in enterprise type environments.

I would personally definitely prefer it over the store,
or individual downloads from sources.

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I wonder how it will handle applications that have options? Just prompts?

E.g. VLC I believe when you install asks if you want a desktop icon, start icon, if you want to keep it up to date, and which of like 30 filetypes you want to associate it with.

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I am thinking fresh install of windows with a script just became a hell of a lot easier. If they throw in update management through this than I think we are all set. Microsoft embracing Linux has been great and makes the windows vs Linux less of a decision. End of day use the tool that works the best for use case. Microsoft has stepped up there game.

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That was my first thought. Ive used Chocolatey previously and it works but having a package manager built in to windows would be a huge win. From what I’ve read you should be able to just point it to any repo you want it to download from.

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I still find the new terminal clunky. Less so, which means they’re getting better, and this is definitely a good thing.

You know how some things just feel like an after thought?

Like in a car, you can tell that some things are like “oh shit, we need X. James, get this designed in the next 8 days”

Or on a distro. Some environments feel fully integrated (like Fedora or Ubuntu with Gnome, Neon with KDE) but some, it’s like the desktop environment is a bolt on, not fully integrated. It’s hard to really quantify, but you can feel it when it’s the case.

Well, that’s how I feel about the windows terminal, be it powershell or cmd, or whatever, it’s just not the quality experience I’m used to on Linux, and that makes me feel icky.

But lately, Windows has been making huge strides to move towards that first-class experience.

Who thought 2020 would Make Terminals Great Again. lol

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Now we get to choose :smiley:

I do like that part to be honest. I have a profile for cmd, powershell, bash, and my remote system.

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Wondering how this compares to Chocolatey. From the looks of it, it seems they are trying to do the same thing.

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