“Second, it still needs to install stuff (there are no menu entries for not-yet installed software) even though it says it doesn’t.”

You can have menu items for not-yet-installed stuff (and file associations too). From the FAQ:

“How do you do integration (eg, making a Start menu show all installed software)?

Since there is no concept of software being ‘installed’ or ‘not-installed’, this is not required. The menu (or other launching device) simply shows applications that the user may want to run. They will be fetched on demand.

For example, the set of applications your system shows you on first install is the applications the distribution author thinks you might like. They may be already in the cache, or they may be loaded on demand (depending on the distribution’s installer).

Indeed, the question is backwards. The menu doesn’t show installed software; rather, the ‘installed’ software is what the user has put on the menu (e.g. using the 0desktop command).

The new menu entry is independent of the program data though; removing the program from the cache doesn’t remove the menu item (clicking on it would simply offer to download the program again).”

“Third, it does not in any way sync between different machines.”

Correct. You need to set up syncing of your configuration files yourself. Once you’ve done that, it will get the software on demand.

“And last but not least, it looks like a failure because it doesn’t solve the problem of trust at all.”

If you don’t like the default trust database, you’re free to use a different one. What kind of trust system did you have in mind?

“So I’m not impressed – but then, I haven’t used it.”

$ apt-get install zeroinstall-injector

@amondo: I’m not entirely clear what Wizbit wants to be. But it looks like it wants to be a lot more. Anyway, it’s not done yet, and afaik it’s on hold, too, because the devs are doing other things. But yeah, if it were done already, it’d certainly solve quite a few pieces of this puzzle.

@danielpoe: 0install doesn’t look like what I want. First of all it’s not the system package management program. Second, it still needs to install stuff (there are no menu entries for not-yet installed software) even though it says it doesn’t. Third, it does not in any way sync between different machines. And last but not least, it looks like a failure because it doesn’t solve the problem of trust at all. So I’m not impressed – but then, I haven’t used it.

@Dread Knight: How about you take a screenshot of your desktop, log out, come to my machine and log in. If your desktop then looks like on that screenshot, you win. Otherwise I’ll continue to be as unimpressed with KDE as I am right now. :)

http://www.ulteo.com/

( It is from the Mandrake founder )

These are all application/desktop virtualization systems for Windows OSes that pull the entire desktop into the data center, but that either execute it on the end user device (laptop, desktop computers) or failback to simply pushing the terminal services to the client (like XDMCP).

Wizbit: “We all have lots of devices and places to put our data.. All of these places have their own data stores. Your data is stored in different formats. You need to make decisions about what should be on what. You need to manually transfer your data around, and this may even be a manual process. Things get out of sync, especially if you are working on it with someone else. So your collaboration just failed. Your sync just failed. And you don’t know what is where, your backup just failed too. Oh dear.”

http://www.wizbit.org