[clug] VMware ThinApps: anything like this in the FOSS/Linux world?

[Kim Holburn]

Good point.  You know dynamically linked executables are a good idea.  We all agree.  We need that extra space - well perhaps not so much any more with current storage systems.  And what are the downsides to dynamic libraries?  We have incredibly complex distributions, with incredibly complex packaging systems, incredibly complex interdependencies, (which we have to have ways of by-passing every so often when it all just doesn't work) - all of that, just so we get all that dynamic library stuff right.  We have packages that install several libraries that no-one else ever uses or will use.   When we upgrade libraries we have to recompile everything or reinstall a new lot.

All of that just to have dynamically linked executables?  Perhaps we've gone too far along that road and a mix of dynamic and static would be better?  

I see lots of stuff these days that has its own libraries in the bundle or is statically linked.  It's not necessarily all or nothing.

On 2011/Apr/30, at 1:58 PM, Randall Crook wrote:

> You mean like a statically linked executable?
> 
> Sorry, I just had to. ;) IT just keeps going round in circles. :)
> 
> Randall. 
> 
> On 30/04/2011, at 12:43 PM, steve jenkin wrote:
> 
>> I've just stumbled across VMware's "ThinApp" (for Windows only).
>> 
>> Doesn't need an install or O/S drivers - like PKzip's self-extracting
>> archives, everything is there in one blob, an EXE.
>> 
>> Does the same functionality exist in the FOSS world?
>> Can I do something like this for QEMU or anything else?
>> 
>> regards
>> steve j
>> 
>> ======================================================
>> 
>> <http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/overview.html>
>> 
>> With VMware ThinApp, applications are packaged into single executables
>> that run completely isolated from each other and the operating system
>> for conflict-free execution on end-point devices.
>> 
>> Package Once, Deploy Everywhere
>> 
>> Deploy virtualized applications in user mode, without administrative rights.
>> No device drivers are installed and no registry changes are made because
>> the entire application and its virtual OS are delivered as a single EXE
>> file.
>> 
>> Transparently stream large applications from a shared network drive with
>> no server or client software to install.
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
>> 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
>> PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA
>> 
>> sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin
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> 
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Kim Holburn
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