What do you think about this new Microsoft MSIX Bundle installer format?

[Bradley]

What do you think about this new Microsoft MSIX Bundle installer format?
https://www.martinstoeckli.ch/silentnotes/silentnotes.Msixbundle

The open source Silent Notes app runs on Android & Windows.
https://www.martinstoeckli.ch/silentnotes/

Silent Notes has a typical Android APK that installs in the usual manner.
But for Windows, Silent Notes doesn't seem to install in the usual manner.

You can sideload SilentNotes on Android.
https://www.martinstoeckli.ch/silentnotes/ch.martinstoeckli.silentnotes.apk
Or you can load Silent Notes using the Google Play Store on Android.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.martinstoeckli.silentnotes

But for Windows, SilentNotes is in the Microsoft Store if you have a login.
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P14JXNCRXSK?rtc=1&hl=en-us&gl=US
Or you can load Silent Notes using something called an MSixBundle format.
https://www.martinstoeckli.ch/silentnotes/silentnotes.Msixbundle
Name: silentnotes.Msixbundle
Size: 29167026 bytes (27 MiB)
SHA256: 08ADC8A506F1261B134EE3B4F03D0B002AA0898907FAF1DE9D919749E90F7677

I doubleclicked on that ".msixbundle" and it did "something" that caused
Silent Notes to be "installed" somewhere but what the heck did it do?

I looked up what the heck a .MSixBundle on Microsoft Windows is,
and after finding out it's a new format, I don't understand why we need it.

https://www.advancedinstaller.com/what-is-msix-bundle.html
"Microsoft recently came out with an MSIX-related packaging format called
the MSIX Bundle, which includes safer and more reliable deployments as well
as auto-updates and improved widespread support - which makes our life
easier as application packagers."

I have no idea where the program went, or how to uninstall it, or what.
What do you think about this new Microsoft MSIX Bundle installer format?

[JJ]

Great for users which are not familiar with computer.

Bad for power users, due to installer bloat. Only one installer platform is
needed. There rest are useless garbage.

> which makes our life easier as application packagers

That's a one sided benefit.

[VanguardLH]

Bradley <bra...@nospam.com> wrote:

> https://www.advancedinstaller.com/what-is-msix-bundle.html

"The MSIX Bundle is a packaging format that comprises multiple MSIX
packages - each of which can support a specific system architecture.

In practice, with the MSIX Bundle, you can have both an MSIX package
for the x86 version of your installer and another one for the x64
version, which you can include into one single package as a bundle."

I see an advantage there. Give the user both the x86 and x64
installers, and choose the correct one based on which hardware platform
on which the product is installed. Remove guessing or incorrect
decisions by the user. MSIX Bundle makes sense to provide access to
multiple installers based on the target platform.

"Make sure to use Windows 10 1809 or higher if you want to take
advantage of the MSIX Bundle packaging format."

A new installer packaging format since 2018, so only usable on Windows
10, and up.

"Similar to MSIX packages, the MSIX bundle uses a PKZip-based file
compression which can be decompressed using any PKZip utility tool."

So, like Microsoft's doc formats (.docx, .xlsx, etc) that utilized
compressing along with a hiearchy for arranging resources for a
document, Microsoft added compressed archiving to installers. Guess the
savings depend on whether or not the installer was already compressed
for its image of files, or not.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/supported-platforms#msix-feature-support

That shows which MSIX features are available based on version of
Windows.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/supported-platforms#msix-feature-support

"The MSIX SDK is an open-source project that allows developers to use
the MSIX package format universally on all platforms."

Not sure it will catch on in non-Windows platforms. Remember
Microsoft's attempt to supplant PDF by bundling Open XML Paper
Specification (XPS) aka ECMA-388 printer format?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/overview

"Reliability. MSIX provides a reliable install boasting a 99.96%
success rate over millions of installs with a guaranteed uninstall."

Guaranteed? Really? Does "guaranteed" mean "complete"? No more dirty
uninstalls requiring cleanup of file and registry remnants?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/msix-container

Seems isolation is implemented again to secure the apps against each
other, and what resources they can access.

https://pacesuite.com/blog/msi-vs-msix-overview-and-comparison/

The added security is upon non-admin and non-root apps. Drivers and
root-level apps cannot be installed using MSIX. Most apps installed by
end users do not require admin or root privileges, so MSIX added more
protection for the largest sector of apps.