0install: Overview

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

Installing a word-processor doesn't grant it administrator access;
Digital signatures are always checked before new software is run;
Users share libraries without having to trust each other;
Use with sandboxes and virtualisation is easy

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 (with a SAT solver for dependency resolution), sharing between users, and integration with native platform package managers. It supports both binary and source packages, and works on Linux, OS X, Unix and Windows systems. It is fully Open Source.

Make packages

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

Sep 2017: 0install 2.12.2 released. This fixes a bug handling large HTTP redirect pages and updates the build to cope with various upstream changes.
0repo 0.5 released. This provides better support for hosting on S3, has more configuration options to disable certain checks, and makes it easier to import missing archives.
Aug 2017: 0watch released - this monitors an upstream site and adds new releases using 0template. 0template 0.5 released. This has better support for Windows and can generate archives automatically.
Jun 2017: 0install 2.13 for Windows released, including support for copy-from and extracting from .tar.xz archives.
Apr 2017: 0install 2.12.1 released. This is mainly small updates to the build to cope with various changes in upstream packages.
Oct 2016: 0install 2.12 released. This is mainly code cleanups and improvements to the build. A minor caching bug, which resulted in some unnecessary extra work being done, was fixed.

[ full news archive ]

For more information see the mailing list archives and the history / roadmap page.