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Topic:
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Bringing Open Source Package Management to Windows
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Speaker:
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Garrett Serack |
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Date:
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7-July-2010 |
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Location:
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Nexen Conference Center
801-7th Ave. S.W., Calgary, AB. (Plus 15 level)
Map
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Registration:
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5:00 pm - 5:30 pm |
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Presentation:
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5:30 pm |
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The Calgary .Net user Group would like to thank the following organizations: |
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Click here to register for this event (Note: You must be logged in)
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The biggest challenge to using/building/maintaining many Open Source applications on Windows, is that Windows does things differently that Linux and Unix . Different filesystems, command lines, APIs, user experiences … pretty much everything. Regardless of personal opinions about it being the ‘right-way’ or ‘wrong-way’, it suffices to say that it is just simply different.
Linux’ Package Management Systems are a superior tool for managing the installation, updating and removal of software. Ian Murdock (founder of the Debian Linux distribution) has commented that package management is “the single biggest advancement Linux has brought to the industry”, that it blurs the boundaries between operating system and applications, and that it makes it “easier to push new innovations [...] into the marketplace and [...] evolve the OS”.
The Common Opensource Application Publishing Platform (CoApp) project is bringing a Package Management System to Windows. By working with all types of software developers—Native, .NET, Web Applications, as well as other languages (Java, Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby and others), CoApp aims to ensure that all developers on Windows are well supported.
Garrett Serack worked as an independent software development consultant in Calgary, Canada, for 15 years, with clients in fields such as government, telecom, petroleum, and railways. Joining Microsoft in the fall of 2005 as the Community Program Manager of the Federated Identity team, Garrett has worked with the companies and the Open Source community to build digital identity frameworks, tools, and standards that are shaping the future of Internet commerce and strengthening the fight against fraud.
In the summer of 2007, he transitioned to Open Source Technology Center at Microsoft where he works as a Software Development Engineer and operates closely with Open Source communities to improve the quality and performance of their software on the Windows Platform. In addition to being the Project Owner of the recently announced CoApp project, Garrett has started a number of other Open Source projects along with working as a committer on yet more projects, including PHP itself. Garrett’s blog at http://fearthecowboy.com, and the his project can be found at http://coapp.org.