![]() ![]() There are some notable tools missing though, like less, ripgrep or fd-find, which I’ve had to install on the side. With my most recent Windows install, I’m trying to stay Chocolatey-free and so far I’m succeeding. Things have improved over time, as expected. I did try winget as soon as it launched in 2020 but couldn’t avoid Chocolatey because winget’s software catalog was pretty limited. And didn’t I say in the opening that Windows now comes with its own package manager? That’s right, it does, and it is called Windows Package Manager or winget for short: winget's built-in usage message. wingetĬhocolatey is all fine and dandy, but it’s one more thing to install. This makes opening new PowerShell sessions feel even more bloated than what I mentioned in a previous post, which is no bueno. ![]() PowerShell has this neat feature to warn when $PROFILE delays startup, and I often get warnings claiming that the script took between 1 to 2 seconds to finish. Additionally, if you opt into using the PowerShell startup scripts that Chocolatey provides, the tools you install will seamlessly be available in the PATH, so after a choco install vim, typing vim in the terminal just works.īut Chocolatey feels bloated: it’s slow to run and the hooks it adds to the PowerShell user profile make launching new PowerShell sessions slow. the process I described earlier is very valuable. I’ve used it since I got into Windows a year ago because the convenience of doing choco install whatever vs. Chocolatey, which launched in 2011, is the prime example. There have been unofficial package managers for Windows for quite a while. If you want to do any “real work” on your computer- S mode didn’t last even a day on my Surface Go 2-you will have to break free from the Store and go back to using scary-looking installer executables. These apps are “secure-er” and are all installed in a common way via the Store desktop app… which is great, but whether an app is available in the Store or not is a hit or miss. Microsoft tried to fix this by introducing the Microsoft Store and UWP apps. Obviously, their installers are equally “on your face”. ![]() I don’t understand why something as “simple” as that must pollute the whole machine, ranging from the notification area in the taskbar to the context menus on the desktop, passing by system-wide keyboard shortcuts. Ta-da! Malware successfully acquired.įurthermore, some of those installers remain as obnoxious as ever. People will type nvidia drivers in a search engine or, worse, in a file sharing service (I’ve seen that), download the very first thing that shows up, and execute the binary without a second thought. Plus it is risky if you don’t pay attention to where you are downloading those executables from. Having to visit arbitrary web sites to download installers and going through their snowflake wizards one by one is time consuming. Software distribution has changed quite a bit with commonplace broadband connections, but the mess of custom installers remains. A fairly typical installation program from the days of Windows 3.x. Take a look at just one example: Microsoft Word 6.0 Setup touting the AutoFormat feature while it copies files. Such software was very slow to install, so the vendors used the installer’s screen space to hype up ther product features. The reason, I think, is simple: most Windows software was distributed via physical media (floppies, CDs and DVDs) and most of it was commercial. Installing software on Windows has typically been a very different experience than what you get in a typical Linux or BSD system. ![]()
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