Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

repository posts

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Linux

Building a Linux-like packaging system for Windows

WinlibreOne of the coolest features Windows users might notice when they try out Linux distributions such as Ubuntu is the ease with which you can find and install open-source programs. While Windows users have to scour the web to find, download, and install applications, Linux users can type a simple "apt-get" into their terminal or open up Synaptic package manager or a similar application.

Ed Ropple wants to know why Linux users should have all the fun, and has proposed working with WinLibre to develop a software repository and packaging system for Windows as part of Google's Summer of Code.

Such a service could make finding and installing new programs much simpler. Not only would you be able to find open source software that fits your needs (something you can already do with websites like OSALT.com), but you can be sure that each program has been tested out by the community maintaining the repository.

[via Slashdot]

Filed under: Blogging, Social Software

WordPress launches plugin directory

One of the appeals of just about any blogging service, especially one you can install in your own hosting space, is the ability to really make it your own. Whether you have to hack and slash through PHP by hand or you can enjoy the luxury of a vast plugin community, it just feels a little more like a (digital) home when you can put your spin on your own blog. WordPress has just such a booming plugin community, but until now, they've never had their own true resource for posting and downloading plugins. Thanks to the new, official WordPress Plugin directory, the days of aimlessly googling for a plugin to do this or that are a thing of the past. Granted it has a ways to go before it can be called 'comprehensive,' but this is exactly what WordPress has needed for quite some time now. Three columns on the main directory site tell visitors which plugins are popular, fresh out of the oven or recently updated, with a Featured Plugin area front and center to host the flavor of the day. Plugin authors can easily add their plugins to the database via this form, and all the WordPress crew ask is that plugins be GPL Compatible. The only gripe we have so far is that there's no RSS feed for the plugin directory itself. Kind of ironic for a blogging engine, no?

[via digg]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio