0install: Overview

Imagine a world where ...

... anyone can distribute software

If you have a web-site, you can distribute your software;
Create one package that works everywhere;
With dependency handling and automatic updates;
There is no central point of control

... security is central

Users don't need administrator access just to install a word-processor;
Digital signatures are always checked before new software is run;
Users share libraries without having to trust each other;
Use of sandboxes and virtualisation is routine

... you control your own computer

You don't have to guess what happens during installation;
Mix and match stable and experimental programs on a single system

Zero Install is a decentralised cross-distribution software installation system. Other features include full support for shared libraries, sharing between users, and integration with native platform package managers. It supports both binary and source packages, and works on Linux, Mac OS X, Unix and Windows systems. It is fully Open Source.

Developers

FAQ Get Zero Install

0install introduction
(screencast with audio commentary)

Get involved!

If you'd like to join us, please introduce yourself on our friendly mailing list! You might also like to read the list of suggested ways to get involved.

News

May 2012: Dave Abrahams will be giving a talk: CMake, Modularization and Ryppl Developer Preview at C++Now! 2012. Ryppl aims "to create the conditions for a portable, modular C++ software ecosystem", using 0install to manage build dependencies.
0install 1.7 released [ Windows version ], adding support for Cygwin packages, the new <replaced-by> element and <command> elements for <package-implementation>s.
Apr 2012: 0compile 0.27 released, with Windows support and various bugfixes and improvements. 0install 1.6.1 for Windows released, which adds new options to GUI (update policy, cache directories, trusted keys), preserves the error level when launching applications via aliases, has improved behavior of the application list when under high load, fixes the application list to work in portable mode, and does not perform update checks when no network connections are detected, as well as fixing various bugs.
Feb/Mar 2012: Windows 0install 1.5.2 and 1.5.3 were released, with a new Sync setup wizard and support for adding aliases in the GUI. 0install 1.6 was released (also for Windows) with a work-around for another Python SSL problem. On the mailing list, there was lots of discussion about using cmake with 0install (we now have an example cmake package) and dealing with incompatible ABIs for C++ programs. 0compile now works on Windows.
Jan 2012: Windows 0install versions 1.5, 1.5.1, and 1.5.2 were releaed. ArchLinux native package support was merged. There's a new Why not 0install? page, recording feedback from projects that didn't decide to use 0install. Interesting discussions on the mailing list included using 0install for a distribution's main package manager, using 0install as a plugin manager, comparing 0install and virtualenv and using 0install without a GUI.
Dec 2011: Notable releases this month include the Windows Publishing Tools (alpha), 0install 1.4.3 for Windows, and 0install 1.5.

For more information see the news page, the mailing list archives and the roadmap.