Zero Install

the antidote to app-stores

News

Jan 2012
Windows 0install versions 1.5, 1.5.1, and 1.5.2 were releaed. ArchLinux native package support was merged. There's a new Why not 0install? page, recording feedback from projects that didn't decide to use 0install. Interesting discussions on the mailing list included using 0install for a distribution's main package manager, using 0install as a plugin manager, comparing 0install and virtualenv and using 0install without a GUI.
Dec 2011
Notable releases this month include the Windows Publishing Tools (alpha), 0install 1.4.3 for Windows, and 0install 1.5.
Nov 2011
0install 1.4 for Windows released! As well as bringing the new features from 1.4 to Windows users, this also adds better Windows integration: a "My applications" list, desktop integration with start menu, file types, etc, command-line aliases (0alias), and synchronization between multiple machines (0install sync). We also created some demo packages showing how 0install can be used to manage Drupal plugins and compile Ceylon programs. If anyone is interested in taking these forward, get in touch!
Oct 2011
The Sugar project announced Sweets Zero Install based Package Management System (Sugar is a desktop environment designed for children, originally developed for the One Laptop per Child XO-1 netbook). 0install 1.4 was released, adding support for MacPorts dependencies. It also fixes a number of bugs.
Sep 2011
0install 1.3 released: downloading now uses threads, rather than sub-processes, for greater efficiency; NetworkManager 0.9 is now supported; command-specific bindings are now supported; the HTTPS connection to the key information service is now properly authenticated; and a German translation was added.
Aug 2011
There's a new guide to Using Zero Install as a plugin manager for your application, 0install 1.1.2 for Windows was released, 0compile 0.25 was released, adding support for <command> and <runner> (to specify the compile command), and a there is a new fork of 0publish with a new API.
Jul 2011
0launch 1.2 released, adding support for <executable-in-var> and <executable-in-path> bindings, faster PackageKit queries and speed improvements in the GUI for packages with many dependencies. Windows 0install 1.1.1 was released. 0install is now in the main OpenSUSE repository. There is also a new user guide.
Jun 2011
0install 1.1 released, adding support for optional dependencies, custom path separators in environment bindings and a new command for calculating digests easily. The Windows version reached 1.0. The Packaging guide has been improved and there are now a set of template projects so you can see how to use 0install with various different languages and build systems.
May 2011

Zero Install 1.0 released! [ en | de ]
Coverage on Slashdot, OSNews, LWN.net.
In German: pro-linux.de, golem.de and linux-magazin.de.
In Russian: linuxcenter.ru.
In Czech: root.cz.

Windows versions 0.54.3 and 0.54.4 were released: there's now a portable version for USB sticks, better Java support, a GUI for selecting versions and a few bug fixes. There's also now a Windows version of the feed editor.

The Mac packages have been updated to 0.54.

Apr 2011
0launch 0.54 and 0launch 1.0-rc1 released. New features include an improved cache explorer, better support for running Python programs, and simpler behaviour for the Compile button. There have also been several new releases of the Windows version, which now supports background updates, self-update, and the new command-line interface. Other new releases this month include 0publish-gui 0.11, 0release 0.13, 0compile 0.24. Finally, there's a new guide for making translations.
Mar 2011
0launch 0.53 released with fewer key confirmation boxes, support for Ruby gems and an important bug-fix for the <command> support. The Mac OS X binary package is much improved. 0compile 0.23 has been released with support for compiling Java programs. Improved cache explorer and feed search features are under development.
Feb 2011
Updated the roadmap to plan for a 1.0 release this summer. There's now an (experimental) binary package for Mac OS X. New releases of 0publish, 0compile and 0export to support recent changes in 0launch and fix a few bugs.
Jan 2011
0launch 0.52 released. There's a new "0install" command providing a cleaner command-line interface, support for literal values for environment variables, more friendly default behaviour for 0alias, support for recursive <runner>s and some cleanups to the Python API. The Windows version now provides a GUI for managing the cache and support for the <command> element.
Dec 2010
0launch 0.51 released with the new command support. New releases of 0test and 0publish.
Nov 2010
The new <command> work has now been merged. This is intended to replace 'main', 'test' and similar attributes with a more flexible and generic system. It allows passing extra arguments to commands (including passing dependencies), having command-specific dependencies, and being able to specify an interpreter in a cross-platform way.
Oct 2010
A first binary of the Windows version has been released.
Sep 2010
Lots of discussion about laying an app store interface on top of Zero Install.
Aug 2010
0launch 0.50 released. The EBox security demonstration was launched, showing how to integrate Zero Install with sandboxing, allowing users to run software they don't trust fully in a restricted environment. See if you can break out of the sandbox!
Jul 2010
0launch 0.49 released, with the new PackageKit support. There's a new IronPython branch, using the .NET mainloop instead of GLib, which means fewer dependencies for Windows users. 0export 0.2 released, including a new --net-install mode. And we have a lovely new logo (shown top-left).
Jun 2010
The big news this month is the new support for PackageKit - if a Zero Install program depends on an uninstalled distribution package, Zero Install can use PackageKit to install it, using the distribution's native package manager. The new 0test now has HTML output to show the test results matrix as a colourful table.
May 2010
0launch 0.48 (and 0.47) released, with support for selecting downloads by language, support for native Slackware and FreeBSD packages as dependencies. Development of the .NET version continues.
Apr 2010
0launch 0.46 released, with the new SAT solver. Feeds for pkg-config and make are now available so they can be used as build dependencies with 0compile. Distribution integration for Gentoo and FreeBSD Ports has been added. An OpenOffice.org feed is under development.
Mar 2010
0launch 0.45 released, with support for native Gentoo packages and distribution-specific package names, better support for alternative digest algorithms and better support for pathnames on Windows. A new SAT solver has been implemented, which can select the best set of versions in every situation. The feed mirror site has been greatly upgraded, with per-user and per-site lists of feeds and rankings.
Feb 2010
The Windows version is coming along nicely - please help to test it! Also, 0export 0.1 was released; this allows easy creation of bundles for off-line distribution or archiving.
Jan 2010
0launch 0.44 released. Improvements include a progress display in console mode, support for GnuPG 2, canonicalisation of architectures and some minor bug-fixes.
Dec 2009
The Sugar project has also provided experimental PackageKit integration. repo.roscidus.com now hosts Java 6 (JRE and JDK), SWT and E packages.
Nov 2009
A new Zero Install repository has been set up on repo.roscidus.com to host feeds for programs where the upstream authors don't provide one. 0launch 0.43 was released, with support for xz compression, getting feeds over https and a Spanish translation.
Oct 2009
Lots of interesting discussion between Sugar Labs (One Laptop per Child) and Zero Install developers about using Zero Install to distribute Sugar Activities. The project has also offered us hosting to set up a repository for third-party packages (i.e. those where the upstream project isn't interested in providing packages of their own). Meanwhile, the grid.dk project has written up some instructions for using Zero Install to deploy Grid applications. deb2zero has been merged with rpm2zero to form pkg2zero.
Sep 2009
0launch 0.42 released. The new version has better internationalisation support, and is able to look up GPG key information from a server. The default service informs you if the feed is signed by a member of the Debian project, in addition to showing information from the old database. We hope to add other trust sources in the future. Distribution integration now also works with multi-arch RPMs. libglade is no longer a dependency. The experimental Windows branch is now able to run Seamonkey.
Jul 2009
No release this month, but work includes much improved internationalisation support, support for key information servers, and support for GtkBuilder.
Jun 2009
An experimental Firefox extension for Zero Install is now available.
0compile 0.18 adds a GUI to the "autocompile" feature and introduces more support for compiling legacy source code.
May 2009
0release 0.10 automatically creates binary packages along with the source releases.
Added IdeaTorrent to track popular ideas - open for voting now!
Apr 2009
0launch 0.40 released (fixes FTP support with Python 2.6).
The new 0compile autocompile feature will download source code and build and register the binary in one go, along with any dependencies.
Mar 2009
0launch 0.39 released, with support for translations, improved background updates and better support for the RPM and Fink package managers.
Jan 2009
0launch 0.38 released, with better support for sudo, and a new "0store audit" command to check the whole cache.
The 0export command is now much improved, with a simple GUI.
Dec 2008
Peer-to-peer downloads are now supported (experimental feature).
Nov 2008
0test released; this tool can test combinations of various versions of a program and its dependencies.
Sep 2008
0launch 0.36 released, fixing some performance problems and other bugs.
Jul 2008
0export can be used to create a self-extracting "setup.sh" installer, for distribution on CD, etc.
Jun 2008
GNOME and KDE integration is now much improved, with a new interface for managing applications you've added to the menu.
May 2008
The new deb2zero utility can publish a Debian package in a Zero Install feed.
Apr 2008
0launch can now fallback to using a mirror automatically. The second part of the video tutorial is now up.
Mar 2008
Zero Install interview on netbsd.org.
Feb 2008
Zero Install 0.32 has been released, with some large-scale refactoring of the Python API and improvements to the GUI. I've also added some tutorial videos to the site.
Jan 2008
We now have a public mirror service running, providing backup copies of all known feeds.

For more information see the mailing list archives and the roadmap.

Articles

Here are some older articles about Zero Install:

Tim Berners-Lee's "Installation, Catalogs, and Caches" (DRAFT version) mentions Zero Install, too! (though the comment about needing a constant connection is wrong)

Surveys

Here are some surveys on 0install:

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