Suggestion for Common Third Party Install system

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To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:48:39 +1200

Recently, I have been working over strategies for Linux on the desktop.
In particular, I've been comparing usability of system administration
tasks to Windows 2K/XP and Mac OS X, the main contenders on the desktop.

System administration tasks are done by almost everybody who owns a
computer. It's not only things like applying security patch's, but
includes mundane tasks like cleaning out old files, changing the dial-up
number for your ISP, and installing and removing software.

The last point is a bit of contention under Linux. Sure, apt-get, urmpi,
and the like make it easy to get and install the latest open source
software from your favourite vendor, but they don't cover 'other'
software. Third party, and closed source software is somewhat more
difficult.

Third party applications are tricky. If a vendor wishes to support
Linux, they currently have two options - to include packages for all the
major distributions, or to roll their own install/uninstall system,
often in the form of a script. If the vendor takes the first option,
there are at least four major package formats to support (apt, rpm,
emerge, and slackware tgz), with multiple sub-versions of those. If the
vendor wishes to support more than just i386, or wishes to provide
native support for say, Itanium and Opteron CPUs as well, the number of
packages multiply even further.

The second option shifts the burden to the user. At first, it seems
reasonable enough. A piece of software installs, with it's own script,
probably into /usr/local/. A directory in /etc/, and files in the
various users /home/ directories are created. Maybe the script also has
the facility to clean up after itself. But where is this script kept?
Perhaps on the install CD, or in the /etc/ directory, or with the
program in /usr/local/application/, or was that
/usr/local/application/bin/ ?

At first glance, this doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem. Most
Linux or *nix software is open source, and files are kept nicely
controlled by the package manager. Just how many pieces of closed source
software could there be on a Linux system anyway?

A lot. Personally, I already have the following installed; Quake 3
Arena, Team Arena, Real Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Unreal Tournament
2003, Enemy Territory, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. If Adobe ever
releases Photoshop for Linux, I'll probably buy a copy of that as well.
Add a couple of things like VMWare, maybe WineX, a video production
package, and some random compiled from source packages, and it starts to
get out of control. All these programs have their own way of doing
things. I could drop everything into /usr/local/, delete it when I'm
done, and hope there's not too much cruft left lying around the system.

The problem is that there will be cruft left lying around the system,
and after a while, cruft builds up. Some of it possibly in horrible
places where it's going to affect other things. You could argue that
developers should release packages for your preferred distribution. You
could argue that they should release the source code, and that I
shouldn't install dodgy software that doesn't stick to /usr/local/ and
provide an uninstall script to remove the various files hanging around
/etc/ and my home directory. You could argue that end users should learn
to use /usr/local/, /opt/, and install/removal scripts. You could argue
a lot of things, but the world doesn't work like that. End users need a
system that allows their file manager to handle the install and removal
of third party applications without bothering them with the details.

One possibility, that I put forward here, is for a simple install and
uninstall system, based around symlinks, and a common applications
directory.

The application, to all outward appearances in most common file
browsers, would appear as a file, but it's really a directory. Let us
assume the application is called 'Foo'. Foo consists of binary files,
supporting libraries, icons, configuration files usually found in /etc/,
and so on. We can express most of these in terms of where they normally
fit in the unix file system. A few, mainly icons, and programs
shortcuts, vary from environment to environment.

The 'Applications' folder is accessible from the users Control panel as
a special directory, allowing write access with sudo and the root
password. The folder itself would most likely sit in somewhere like
/usr/local/Applications/. Thus, our application 'Foo', would be in
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/. It's file structure would look something
like this:

/usr/local/Applications/Foo/
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/icon.svg
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/description.en.txt
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/tree/linux/i686/usr/bin/foo
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/tree/linux/i686/usr/lib/foo/libfoo.so
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/install/etc/foo/foo.conf
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/home/.foo/

To install, symlinks from are made from /usr/bin/foo and /usr/lib/foo/
and /usr/local/Applications/Foo/tree/linux/i686/usr/lib/foo/ to
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/tree/linux/i686/usr/bin/foo, and to
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/tree/usr/lib/foo/. A copy of
/usr/local/Applications/Foo/install/etc/foo/foo.conf is made to /etc/,
so that changes made to the configuration do not affect the original
files of the program.

At the most basic level, Foo/ needs to be copied from it's original
source to /usr/local/Applications/ and a script run to copy files in
Foo/install/ and make symlinks of the files in Foo/tree/. However, this
simple design allows for a great flexibility. Multiple versions for
multiple platforms can be held inside one directory, along with a
complete listings of files that have been 'installed'. If required, you
can make a copy of the various files to the normal /usr/local/ and /opt/
directories. If the environment flat out doesn't support the standard,
you can create the symlinks yourself.

On a user-friendly distribution/file manager, attempting to delete the
'program' from the Applications directory would prompt the user if they
wish to 'uninstall'. The computer would then remove the symlinks and any
configuration files. It could also allow the uninstall program to ask if
the user wishes to remove the system configuration files, originally
copied from the the Foo/install/ directory, and user configuration
files, originally copied from the Foo/home/ directory. This would be
handy for say, games, where you want to remove the game from your
system, but wish to keep the saved games and personal configuration
options.

The file Foo/icon.svg can replace the standard folder icon, and
Foo/description.txt can contain multiple language descriptions of the
program, to be read by any program used to handle the installation and
removal of applications. On more user-friendly systems, double clicking
on the icon for the program on a CD would prompt the user if they wish
to install the program.

There are other benefits to this method. Source installed packages, for
example, Mplayer, instead of being installed directly into the file
system, is instead copied into /usr/local/Applications/mplayer/, and
installed in the above manner. Mplayer can then be copied easily to
other systems, and removed easily when the version gets into your
preferred package system. Automatic detection of CDs with these
applications directories in them, possibly along with an autorun style
file, would simplify installation even further. It is also possible that
normal, non-root users could run these applications directly from their
home directories, without needing to 'install' them. A plugin module for
apt and rpm would allow existing free software managers such as synaptic
and Red Carpet to also manage these applications.

Platforms which break with the standard filesystem, such as GoboLinux,
can still work with this standard, and link files from the tree/*/*/bin/
directory to their preferred location.

I will emphasise again that this system is not meant to replace things
like apt-get and rpm, but sit alongside them, and provide a common
simple platform independent way of installing third party software.

While passing this idea around, I have come up against a few reoccurring
'complaints', some of which I have taken on and added to the above, and
others which I'll try to address here to avoid repetition.

Q1) Apt/emerge/rpm already supports all the third party apps, either
directly, or through meta packages.
A1) While currently, most packages are available in the above manner, as
the popularity of free operating systems grows, more and more
applications will be written for them. If Linux/BSD eventually has even
a tenth of the number of Windows Applications on the shelves, package
maintainers simply will not be able to keep up. It is also unlikely that
brand new release purchasers of Half-Life 3 would want to wait for the
Debian or Gentoo maintainers to release a package, simply so they can
play the game.

Q2) I don't use closed source software, and neither should you!
A2) For better or worse, closed source software is very much here to
stay. While you are certainly welcome to stick to free software, some of
my work requires that I used software that is only available in closed
source form.

Q3) Users / Vendors should just use apt/emerge/rpm.
A3) It is also unlikely that one platform and/or package manager will
emerge as the 'one true manager' for quite some time. In the mean time,
it would be nice if I could install and manage the third party software
on my system with a minimum of fuss. While it's nice to get packages in
my systems preferred format I'm not sure that it's going to be the same
format in five years time. However, the third party software may still
be loaded off the same CD in five years time.

Q4) Users should simply copy straight to the /usr/local/ directory.
A4) I should probably know how to replace, maintain, and repair all the
major components in my car, but I don't, because my mechanic does.
Likewise, the average user shouldn't need to know about something the
computer is capable of taking care of.

Q5) You stole this from Apple!
A5) While the idea is very much inspired by Apple's bundles, you can't
'steal' and idea. And besides, they 'stole' it from NeXT OS. ;)

At this point, I'd mostly appreciate technical arguments about why it
wouldn't work, or what could be done to improve it. Flames can be
reserved for the final specification.

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• Previous message: David Fokkema: "Re: Win machine cannot print to a linux printer (cups)"
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