Installation of software other than Winget based Apps

[ejgagne]

Hello, First I want to congratulate you on a very nice product; it truly is great. Is there, or will there be a way to install software, other than what is available via Winget? I have a lot of software that needs to be pushed out (exe or msi based) and I am hoping OpenUEM can do that or will be a feature in the future. Thanks in advance, and please keep up the great work; projects like this are invaluable. Kind Regards, Eric

[doncicuto]

Hi @ejgagne, first of all thank you for your words, it means a lot.

Well, while the deploy software tab in the computers view only allows you to deploy packages that are available in winget for Windows, flatpak for Linux and brewdb for macOS, you may deploy software using OpenUEM profiles as you can either create a task to install/download a MSI file or a powershell to try to run an exe installer. I know that the profile option is not as quick as using the deploy option but I'd like to let you know.

In the near future I'd like OpenUEM users to be able to connect a winget private repository with OpenUEM so they can install enterprise software that should be private, but using winget.

I really want to hear more about what you'd like to see so please don't hesitate to describe it, it really helps me to understand what is needed and how we could implement it

[ejgagne]

Thanks so much for the information :) It is great to hear that this is being worked on. I was thinking about the private winget repository idea, and had done some research as well. There are a few projects to help create repo's, but what seems to be lacking, is a single utility that can both help upload the software, and also help create the supporting files and code required to point to the created winget package. There is a fair amount of supporting work that needs to be done, and for us non-coders that can be a deal breaker for an otherwise great piece of software. If an inclusive piece of software can be created that both manages the winget repo and also helps with the supporting pieces, that would be amazing :)

[mbgevers]

+1 for good MSI/exe installer support.

Basically i see it like that, if this tool gets full support for those features:

• Linux DEB/RPM support (only those 2 for the moment as those are used in enterprises)
• Full MSI/Exe support
• Patch management for Linux and Windows

It can develop in to a major competitor to many big solutions in the Market and probably get attention from European countries also for funding as many look for digital sovereignty at the moment.

[doncicuto]

Thank you both for your valuable contributions on this topic.

About patch management I think that I'd need some help to define how it should work and which tools (if any) I could use for that both in Linux and Windows. Would you help me to know more about patch management (this is something I've never used before)

[mbgevers]

Thank you both for your valuable contributions on this topic.

About patch management I think that I'd need some help to define how it should work and which tools (if any) I could use for that both in Linux and Windows. Would you help me to know more about patch management (this is something I've never used before)

Well on Linux it's quite easy, check for package updates similar to how canonical does allow it with https://ubuntu.com/landscape or others then allow to create "profiles" with package versions or to hold back updates, maybe list changelog, basically good apt support brings you already 90% of it and for redhat it would be yum/dnf .

If you can for example assign selected updates to a certain group/profile of computers, it allows for testing and then assign it to prod for rollout. also holding back updates or even removing one would be very nice.

For Windows you have to be able to check somehow against the latest version, not that easy in my knowledge.

Regards

[doncicuto]

Thank you @mbgevers for the Linux information

[mbgevers]

Thank you @mbgevers for the Linux information

I find this a good explanation: https://linuxsecurity.com/features/best-open-source-linux-patch-management-software

[doncicuto]

Excellent @mbgevers it helps me a lot and saves me time