Linux distros move toward common app installer API

Feb. 02, 2011

Recent meetings held among the RedHat, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva, and Mageia communities has resulted in an informal agreement on an architecture for a common app installer API. Yet the dream of a universal GNU/Linux app-store may be much farther off.

Reference : http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Linux-and-the-Great-App-Store-Agenda-71752.html
                      http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7312694782.html

On Jan. 31, LinuxInsider's Katherine Noyes sampled the Linux blogs and forums for feedback, and found general support for a common app installer, but with plenty of observers predicting doom for the project. The more distant dream of a common app-store for Linux, which was not formally discussed at the main Nuremberg meetings, seemed even more far-fetched to many, though many others deem it a worthy goal.

Having a common installer -- and ultimately, a universal app store -- should help attract new users and third-party developers to desktop Linux, goes the general consensus. It would help to cushion the fragmentation of the desktop Linux market while easing the pain of dealing with the complexity of most package managers. Yet, many other attempts at unified standards among Linux communities have ended in failure, note skeptics.