Efforts/Package Restructuring/Backends/MS Windows/Installer

Experiments under Windows with WiX (Windows Installer XML) show,

• that any set of products may share any number of files,
• that any one product may update any number of other products (basically leading to a de-installation of these other products), and
• that any product sharing files with other products may update any number of these shared files.

This lets me think, that Windows is as dynamic and flexible as the classic package based platforms, while providing a simpler user interface.

Merge Modules

"In order to avoid versioning problems, you should use always merge modules for any component or file that will be shared by multiple applications." [1]

Product Independent Updates

To realize product independent updates I basically see two options,

• try to use the Installer API[2] to install/update shared "components" programmatically, or
• split OOo into hierarchical dependent products (e.g. URE, CORE, brands), which are to be installed concurrently (see Concurrent Installations[3]) and may utilize product hiding[4] (e.g. for the CORE) in the "Add and Remove Programs" dialogue.

Repository Support

MS Windows uses the WSUS (Windows Server Update Services)[5] to keep Windows and MS applications current. With the latest version, so called "Local Publishing" by using the WSUS API becomes possible[6]. This may be an opportunity to enable WSUS to publish OOo updates ...

WSUS Links: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/en-us/sus/default.mspx