Anything like the Debian Package Manager for Windows?

Question

I know that sounds a weird request. But I was installing a bunch of packages in Ubuntu yesterday, using apt-get and I started wondering if anyone had adapted it or produced anything similar for Windows.

What I mean is a) an package manager / installer for Windows. And b) a repository of free-software packages in a compatible format.

Answer 1

You could try win-get. It's an open source clone of apt-get for windows with a fairly sizable application repository.

I've used it on several previous workstations to get software installed quickly and maintain version of heavily developed applications. It works well.

Answer 2

I found the following based on the wikipedia entry for package management system and a blog entry:

• Cygwin: for open source tools that run on the cygwin platform
• AppSnap: Gui tool, last released February 2008, last checkin October 2008. It did install the latest version of several software packages for me. Includes programming tools for Perl, Java, .NET, Ruby, C++, etc. App seems slightly buggy on Windows 7.
• Windows-Get: A command line tool based on apt-get. Great idea, seemed to be last updated in 2007. I didn't have much success with it.
• AppUpdater: Gui tool last released November 2009 and under active development as of Jan 2010. Detected several apps that were already installed on my system. I had to run as admin to get this to work on Windows 7. Also has a command line tool.
• GetIt: Gui tool that has some support for using AppSnap and AppUpdater if they are installed. Has some support for autodiscovery of repositories. Interface is a little clunky, making it hard to tell what is already installed. Supports upgrades, but doesn't seem to support removal of packages.
• QWinApt: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.
• WinAptic: Looks out of date, haven't tried it.
• WinLibre: Very professional looking but with a VERY limited number of pacakges (around 20) when I installed the minimal version. The project seems to be recently open sourced, the packages are quite out of date. Much of the development conversation seems to be in French.
• ZeroInstall: This is a multiplatform installer that is not quite yet supported on windows, though the maintainers seem open to having a windows version and it may just be a matter of compiling it for windows. I haven't tried this one yet. It seems to be geared around security and isolating installs in a separate environment from the admin account of a system.
• WPKG:
• Unattended:
• InstallPad:

Answer 3

Not exactly a package manager, but http://ninite.com/ is a handy way to bulk install a lot of free apps on a new PC.

And Filehippo is a way to find out whether some of your installs have new versions.

If only the above 2 could be combined into one program.

Answer 4

here is a new one: http://code.google.com/p/windows-package-manager/