SOURCE: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-May/037074.html
This gets even better: so Ubuntu has announced they are now working on a new package management system for software installation. They do not make it very clear as to what the details on this new package format will be, only that it will be happening.
It seems that they are doing this to make it easier for third-parties to develop and distribute software for Ubuntu and easier to install for users. They claim that the base will still be built upon dpkg and apt, and they will still sync with Debian as they do occasionally.
Honestly, what I am getting at is this seems like it is going to be a secondary package management system for non-core applications and will have the added feature of allowing regular users to install applications (not something as an admin I would be thrilled at). These applications would probably be stored someplace like /Programs or such as we see happens on the Mac since so much of Ubuntu does seem to draw from the Mac experience in many ways.
What is even more interesting is how this plays in with the mobile scene. Because most phones are not rooted devices a package management system that does not alter the "core" would be needed for Ubuntu to be successful in the mobile markets. This is what providers want, unfortunately. It seems like this will be similar to APKs as mentioned on the original announcement.
Now one of the more interesting goals of these projects is to ensure that applications have the ability to be sandboxed. Now, I am not sure if they mean every resource the app uses will be sandboxed or just the installed portion of the app. That had me a little confused, but it does seem like a more novel idea and honestly something that I think that Linux and UNIX in general needs to make easier.
In addition, it appears one of the goals of this project it is to mitigate the need for dependency management, so my guess is that any of these package created will also bring along some of their own libraries as well.
I do have to wonder though, are they reinventing the wheel where it doesn't need to be? To be honest I wonder why they didn't just adopt a system like PBI to track their own sources and work nicely with Debian type systems. It would seem a trivial thing to do and accomplish much of the same thing.
This gets even better: so Ubuntu has announced they are now working on a new package management system for software installation. They do not make it very clear as to what the details on this new package format will be, only that it will be happening.
It seems that they are doing this to make it easier for third-parties to develop and distribute software for Ubuntu and easier to install for users. They claim that the base will still be built upon dpkg and apt, and they will still sync with Debian as they do occasionally.
Honestly, what I am getting at is this seems like it is going to be a secondary package management system for non-core applications and will have the added feature of allowing regular users to install applications (not something as an admin I would be thrilled at). These applications would probably be stored someplace like /Programs or such as we see happens on the Mac since so much of Ubuntu does seem to draw from the Mac experience in many ways.
What is even more interesting is how this plays in with the mobile scene. Because most phones are not rooted devices a package management system that does not alter the "core" would be needed for Ubuntu to be successful in the mobile markets. This is what providers want, unfortunately. It seems like this will be similar to APKs as mentioned on the original announcement.
Now one of the more interesting goals of these projects is to ensure that applications have the ability to be sandboxed. Now, I am not sure if they mean every resource the app uses will be sandboxed or just the installed portion of the app. That had me a little confused, but it does seem like a more novel idea and honestly something that I think that Linux and UNIX in general needs to make easier.
In addition, it appears one of the goals of this project it is to mitigate the need for dependency management, so my guess is that any of these package created will also bring along some of their own libraries as well.
I do have to wonder though, are they reinventing the wheel where it doesn't need to be? To be honest I wonder why they didn't just adopt a system like PBI to track their own sources and work nicely with Debian type systems. It would seem a trivial thing to do and accomplish much of the same thing.
