Software distribution

A software distribution is an installer of a specific software (or a collection of multiple, even an entire operating system) , already compiled and configured.

It is generally the closest thing to a turnkey form of a usually GPL or open source source code for a software.

It usually takes the form of either rpm, deb, tgz, msi, exe etc. installer and is downloadable from the Internet.

Examples range from whole operating system distributions to server and interpreter distributions (for example WAMP installers).

They can be either official distributions by the makers of the software, or 3rd party distributions.

Notable is the fact that one using such 3rd party distributions will have to turn to the distribution maker for support, the developers of the actual software being distributed usually do not provide support for 3rd party distributions of their software.

Vendors of such software distributions systems include:

Altiris with Deployment Solution
CapaSystems with CapaInstaller
HP with Radia
IBM with Tivoli Configuration Manager
LANDesk with Management Suite
Matrix42 with Empirum
M23 software distribution system: m23 is an OpenSource and GPL'd solution for installation of Debian and Ubuntu systems.
Symantec with iCommand
BMC Software with Marimba
ManageSoft Corporation
Novell ZENworks
Microsoft SMS (Systems Management Server)
Vector NetworksPC-Duo Enterprise Desktop Management and Support
Snow Software Enterprise Software Management
SSI Operating systems and software deployment from SoftService.

Open Source Distribution Tools

Autotools are widely used for distributions comprised of source files written in C++ and the C programming language, but are not limited to these.

The Python programming language offers a distribution utility called distutils, which requires the creation of a setup.py configuration file.

Standard Files

Open source projects typically contain a few standard files that live in the root of the distribution extraction. These files are most commonly named:

README - top level documentation overview
Changelog - list of changes spanning the life of the project
INSTALL - instructions on how to install
LICENSE - AKA COPYING (by GNU)
CREDITS - AKA AUTHORS, attribution for project contributors

Some less frequently used names that you might also see:

FAQ - frequently asked questions (and answers)
BUGS - list of software bugs
HACKING - development guide for new participants
NEWS - interesting project informations, sometimes used in place of the Changelog

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Software distribution

Open Source Distribution Tools

Standard Files

See also