Because no space in this world is immune from advertising, you're about to see ads start popping up in software installers. OpenCandy, the company providing the technology says software developers can use their software in one of two ways. During the installation process, users will either see:

1. An option to install a similar application
2. An ad

But if you ask me, both options are an ad. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In one case, you may see a paid advertisement, while in another case you may see a recommendation to download an application. Whether the developer of that application paid to get the software title in front of you or not, there's clearly an exchange of value taking place here.

Anyway, the offers to install additional software are always opt-in. So you won't accidentally install unwanted software just by clicking Next over and over. And the way OpenCandy handles additional software installations is actually pretty nifty. Near the end of the install process, you're asked if you want to add an extra application. If you choose yes, the first installer will finish up, and then you'll automatically download the new program and its installer will launch.

OpenSUSE has always been an odd sort of Linux distribution. It's always been reasonably user friendly, very stable, and quite nicely pulled off the not-so-easy task of being good for new users while offering advanced and power users the flexibility and freedom they require.

Yet OpenSUSE often gets a bad wrap. There's that whole Novell/Microsoft/the world is ending conspiracy thing going on, for one thing. Certainly when Novell bought SuSE, it was disturbing. What were Novell's intentions? Where were things going to go from this point? Was openSUSE going to suffer for it?

Suffer? We probably wouldn't go as far as to say that. Were the changes and improvements to the distribution immediately after Novell took the helm earth-shaking? No, not particularly. They were modest, and worked well enough, but nothing that seemed leaps and bounds beyond the previous versions.

Nothing seemed leaps and bounds beyond -- until now. Today, OpenSUSE officially rolled out the 11.0 release. OpenSUSE seems to have scrutinized itself, from the kernel to the community. The developers pushed away from what seemed like an "adapt to survive" mode, and rolled out a release with changes so dramatic and beautiful that the distribution's chameleon ("geeko") mascot seems less cute and instead genuinely fitting.

If we had one word, and only one word to use to describe OpenSUSE 11.0, it would be this:

Fast.

Yes, dear readers. We just used the word "fast" (boldface, even) in relation to an OpenSUSE release. It starts and runs applications quickly, and we can say completely honestly, it installs quickly. We aren't just talking system updates and "here and there" YaST additions. No... You can boot the liveCD and have a complete OpenSUSE 11.0 system on your hard drive in what seems even slightly less time than an Ubuntu install.

We love executable Windows apps that don't need to be installed. They don't muck up you registry and other settings, and when you want to delete them, you just delete the file or folder, no add/remove programs dialog required. Best of all, most of these applications can be run from a USB flash drive which means you can carry them with you and run them on any computer.

But there are a few advantages to having an installer. First, if an application isn't listed in the add/remove program dialog and you don't use it very often, you might forget it's there at all and never get around to deleting it. Second, you have to create folders for all of your executable applications and add shortcuts to the Windows start menu manually. Or you could use ZipInstaller.

This little executable will automatically move any executable file to the folder of your choice, add an entry to add/remove, create an uninstaller application, and add a shortcut to your start menu. Best of all? ZipInstaller comes as an executable file, so we were able to test it out by installing ZipInstaller. Not only did a shortcut pop up in the Windows start menu, but now we can also launch ZipInstaller using keyboard application launcher Launchy.

[via Freeware Genius]

UNetbootin is a tool that makes installing Linux about as easy as it can be. Like Wubi, you can install UNetbootin on a Windows partition to get started. Unlike Wubi, the end result with UNetbootin is a dual-boot machine that can boot either into a Windows partition or a Linux one.

So why use UNetbootin instead of downloading and burning a liveCD? Well, if you don't have a spare CD-R writing around, of if your computer doesn't have a CD burner, UNetbootin uses a network-based installation technique. Just select the flavor of UNetbootin you want to install, reboot your machine, and follow the on-screen instructions. This would be an awesome tool for anyone who has one of those super-portable laptops that don't come with optical disc drives.

You can use UNetbootin to install Debian, Arch Linux, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSuse 10.2, and Ubuntu 6.06 - 7.10. There are Linux and Windows-based installers available which means you can use UNetbootin to add Ubuntu to your Windows PC or to ad Mandriva to your OpenSuse machine. Windows Vista isn't currently supported, but an update should be coming in a few weeks that will allow you to use UNetbootin with Vista.

[via Howtoforge]

As regular computer user, I don't have much interest in migrating to Vista in the immediate future. I don't think it offers any great leap in usability or functionality over XP. UAC (User Access Control) is definitely much needed and will improve security overall but it can be annoying as hell for average users. Aero Glass UI is nice to look at but does nothing to actually let you work more efficiently. Added to which, there are still doubts on how well Vista performs as a home media center or gaming platform.

On the other hand as a .Net software developer, Vista is both a blessing and a curse. I want every single Windows user migrated to Vista as soon as possible because having the .Net framework included as part of Vista's standard installation is a very big deal. This means that application installers will no longer need to check for the presence of the .Net framework or provide a method to automatically download and install it if absent. This is a huge time and effort savings for the user as the framework is a large download. Also some users are turned off by the mere idea of downloading yet another component in order to run an application in XP. With the framework part of the OS, users will have one less thing to worry about.

Normally I like to showcase freeware for Windows Mobile devices. But Teksoft's AirWizard is well worth paying for if you have to constantly set up Windows Mobile devices after a hard reset.

AirWizard lets you take a group of installer files and pack them together into one nice big installer. When would this come in handy? Say for example that you write about PDA software for a technology blog and so you're constantly installing and uninstalling programs on your beloved handheld device. And then say you install a program that makes the whole thing lock up and your only option is to perform a hard reset.

Now, in this hypothetical and tragic situation, your only recourse is to spend hours tracking down the installer files for all of your favorite software and reconfiguring your device. And as much as this is a fun project for a Saturday afternoon/evening/late night, AirWizard can save you a lot of time. It'd also be handy if you want to install the same software on a number of devices in a corporate setting.

I'd be happy to pay for the program -- if it didn't cost close to $60. Luckily, there's an "unlimited trial" available. Users who register the software get free technical support and free upgrades.

[via SolSie]

InstallPad is a brilliant open source app for Windows that lets you automate the download and installation of entire suites of programs. InstallPad relies on "application lists," which are XML files that tell it where to download the programs and how to install them. It has a built-in GUI for building and editing an application list (or you can edit XML by hand if you like), and you can select which applications from the list to install. The really cool part is that it does all of this silently. You don't have to play "Next, Next, Next, Next, Next, Next, Finish" game with the installers, because InstallPad does it for you. It also lets you pass arguments to the installers and invoke scripts when installation is complete. It can download from HTTP and FTP sources as well as run local installers or network resources. The obvious audience here is the network administrator who frequently has to bootstrap machines with the same bunch of apps, but it also has benefits for when you're doing a reformat-and-reinstall, or setting up a virtual machine with a bunch of apps.

Over at Lifehacker, Gina Trapani has put together a few application lists for InstallPad, including a "PC Rescue Pack," "Media Pack," and a general-purpose "Lifehacker Pack." Don't miss 'em.

I have a large project for work that I have been developing for over three years now. A while back I needed a way to quickly and easily install the application on a user's PC's from a remote location. I have users in six states, and while I wouldn't mind visiting Hawaii, the company doesn't think I need to do so to get my app installed. The Install Creator program from Clickteam offers a free alternative. Unfortunately for me, this means I won't be going to Hawaii anytime soon, at least not on the company's dime. Clickteam's light-weight but fully featured solution does a great job. Everything is modifiable, including the image placement, icon settings, and even the installer's text prompts. This installer is much easier to use than Nullsoft's Installer, which requires a bit of scripting knowledge. The only catch is that the free version displays a text ad promoting the installer maker on the install creator at the end of each install, so your unsuspecting users know how you did it. A small price to pay for being able to save the company some money. Too bad my boss already bought a ticket to Hawaii and didn't tell me...yeah right.

It has been a while since I'd booted my XP "virgin install". If you recall, this was a pure, unadulterated (except for the manufacturer-recommended drivers) install of Windows XP, SP2. I'd been playing with this to see what one looks like, and how it performs. It's surprisingly hard to find a "pure" install in the wild, since so many of us get OEM versions of Windows, replete with junk from Gateway, Dell, even Microsoft (no thanks to Movie Maker, seriously).

Given that it had been months since my last boot, I had to wait for a couple dozen Windows updates to clear. Then I waited a while for AVG to update. I launched Google's Desktop Beta, which at the time was version 1 I think? Impossible to tell, because Google's Desktop search doohickey just didn't want to tell me that info. More distressing than that was the lack of a new version notice. Normally those bug me (like when Firefox just decided to update itself on my wife's machine and she got a little freaked out). This time, that would have been nice. Going to the Google Desktop page within the application doesn't even give you a note that there's a new version available! The more Google pushes forward, the more I'm beginning to see tears at the seams of their fabric of tools... More on that at a later date...

Anyway, despite a longer than usual boot time, everything came out of cold storage OK. Real Player has decided to send me a couple of messages about garbage I'd never give a passing glance, were it not for their "permissions based" tray'o'spam icon. In other words, I got a popup from Real that I could have done without, and a cutesy icon in my tray indicating messages I don't care to read. I can't imagine why no one uses Real Player anymore, can you?

So both AVG and Google Desktop wanted me to reboot, which I did, and realized a good number of things were out of date. Microsoft AntiSpyware, Windows Media Player, Firefox, and most of the free apps (like RSSOwl) needed incremental updates. Firefox was v. 1.0.6! Add in Flash player update (a major one), and I really was just over it. Proof that in today's computer world, you need a broadband connection and constant vigilance to maintain technical superiority over your neighbors. Anyway, my real interest was in Google's new features in their Desktop application. Unfortunately, by the time I'd installed all the updates, I had run out of time. So while there probably won't be any more of these Virgin Install series, I will at least try to beat up this installation as much as possible with doodads from Google (and the rest), for purity's sake. More importantly, I'm going to keep an eye on my disk usage, since I hear tell the Desktop search may balloon cache files beyond the point of reason. And with less than 6 GB to go on here, that may keep me up at night...

A reader mentioned nLite ages ago, back when I was still tinkering with a "virgin" XP install. I didn't need it then, since I really wanted whatever gets installed by default with a new XP installation. But now I'm in a situation where I need to install XP, but don't need certain components. More importantly, I need to install a couple of things right off the bat, and I'd really like to do all this unattended. You know, waiting around just to click Next a dozen times is no fun. I've seen students around here use it, and nLite is very cool. Especially for those of you who need to reinstall XP on a regular basis (you know who you are). If you could set it up correctly, nLite could be run on a yearly basis, wrapping all the security updates and patches into one big ball. Just keep your data and settings on another drive, and use nLite to reinstall freshness periodically. The app goes beyond this, allowing you to uninstall components, and tweak the OS as it is installed. All you need is .NET and you're good to go.

I absolutely live by Pod2Go from Kainjow Software. RSS feeds, Stickies, weather, etc. all sync up on my iPod now, pretty-as-you-please. But the lone developer of Pod2Go isn't content to just make one kickin' app, oh no. He's gone and made several lately, including a Windows screensaver (simulates the XP logo saver on your Mac, for fun I guess), and my new favorite: an easy-to-use iPodLinux installer. Previously you had to do all those scary, nasty manual steps to install Linux on the iPod. Lovely. Linux made, Mac simple.