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I’m sure the developers of Chocolatey have been dreading this day for years.

Depends on how good the Microsoft implementation is. Afaict, mainly power users use Chocolatey, and they're going to be particularly critical of a solution that is half-baked and doesn't solve the problem as well as an existing, third-party solution that they're already using and they're already used to.

I'm certainly not going to switch over just because it's MS. It's going to have to prove it's at least as good as, if not better than, Choco.

There are also benefits to Chocolatey that probably can't be replicated by MS, such as the package repo being a community effort and it being a relatively open platform for anybody to add whatever package they need.

I think most power users switched to scoop, because chocolately is... not great. Scoop is much better, but has a much smaller list of apps.

I don't want to hate on chocolately too much, because it has filled a very obvious gap in the Windows landscape for so long, but I really don't like it.

The biggest problem is that there are invariably 5 different packages for anything you want to install, with no reliable way of deciding which is the real/main one.

Another problem is packages constantly breaking. This can happen because packages actually pull files from remote, primary sources, and those files disappear or the site goes down, but also for a myriad of other reasons.

Yet another problem is the reliability of the chocolately site - it seems to go down or be slow as hell quite frequently.

Another gripe is that AFAIK, chocolately doesn't support 3rd party repos.

And finally (and this one is totally subjective) the website is ugly.

So as glad as I am that chocolately filled a void, I'll also be glad for Microsoft to provide an official, reliable replacement that also supports 3rd party repos.

scoop and scoop extras (https://github.com/lukesampson/scoop-extras) covers pretty much everything I use on Windows. I didn't realize the other repos existed for a while, but once I did, I got rid of choco entirely.

I wasn't aware of scoop extras until you mentioned it, so thanks!

> The biggest problem is that there are invariably 5 different packages for anything you want to install, with no reliable way of deciding which is the real/main one.

> Another problem is packages constantly breaking. This can happen because packages actually pull files from remote, primary sources, and those files disappear or the site goes down, but also for a myriad of other reasons.

How are these different on Scoop? The first one seems to only be related to the actual amount of packages. E.g. if Scoop ever grows to the same size, it will get it too.

The second one is also unclear. Does Scoop test all the packages it provides? Somehow I think it is unlikely.

Not tried scoop, but not had many problems with choco, installing stuff on 100 machines at work, made a smb share to store the package files, wrote a script to grab xml files based on machine names of lists of things to install.

The search does seem to break sometimes, but not had much problem with the packages themselves, a few end up installing in a user context, which isn't helpful when the user is SYSTEM.

Easier than constantly repackaging things as MSI/writing install scripts

My gripe with Chocolatey is just that I can't set a non default dir. Everything is installed in my small SSD.

You can probably work around it using reparse points https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_reparse_point

E.g. just move all the files where you want them, and create a directory junction/symbolic link.

sure, but I have to do it manually for each one. Who has time for this?

Oh, I thought you want to put all chocolatey packages on a different drive (in which case you'd just move the root folder).

You can change the installation directory, but you need pay for it

https://chocolatey.org/docs/features-install-directory-overr...

Dreading? I doubt it. It's a relief when the problem your library solves no longer needs solving!

No, can't you see? Microsoft is going to Embrace, Extend, Extinguish Chocolatey!!! /s

If it was just a free library that would be one thing but they have a company with multiple employees.

I won't say it was silly to ever make Chocolatey, but it was living on borrowed time from day one.

What's interesting to me about this announcement is that it seems to replace something they already had; Microsoft released OneGet several years ago and was positioning it (I thought) the same way they are positioning this. It's in maintenance mode now. So I would say Chocolatey is doomed only if this actually sticks.

Still lame that Microsoft has been waiting that long to deliver such a basic functionality.

Kind of like the .net framework celebrating its first json serialization library in the CLR a couple of years ago. Welcome to 2010!

I suspect third parties will continue to do this way better than Microsoft, to be honest. Microsoft can't pick winners and losers, they can't offer an opinionated system, which package repos generally are, without being monopolist.

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