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OpenBundles Specification V0.1 (unfinised)by David Jeske
The ProblemIt is difficult for end-users of UNIX based desktops to easily download and install third-party software.It is difficult or impossible for third-party developers of graphical UNIX software to minimize the work required to bring their application to the varied UNIX platforms (FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux/RedHat, Linux/Slackware, etc.) and desktop environments (Gnome, KDE, and many others). BackgroundToday there are numerous application installation methods for UNIX based applications including RPM, Debian, tarballs, and installing from source. These varying standards make it difficultFurthermore, graphical applications must be able to publish information such as an application icon and mimetypes they handle to desktop systems. Today this balkanizes applications into a single "desktop camp". Either an application properly exports information to KDE or Gnome, or worse, it dosn't directly work with either. The Rox Filer already supports an encapsulated Application Directories. The directory is identified by an AppInfo.xml file. however, it does not address many of the issues we would like to address, including multiple-platform binaries, exporting icons and mimetypes, exporting services and scripting interfaces, and rules for filemanager specific extensions. The SolutionThe goal of OpenBundles is to create a simple mechanism for encapsulating, installing, and publishing meta-information for installed tools. Initially, this standard is targeted at UNIX graphical applications, however, it can be extended in the future to support plug-ins, library kits, development tools, font libraries, and any other installable items.should add:
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