For many years, enthusiasts have been creating their own personal package of apps with custom installers to quickly automate the process of installing the base apps on a system. Ninite simplifies the process by providing a web based service that allows a user to quickly choose their favorite apps and build a custom installer.
As reported by Ed Bott, Ninite allows users to choose from 80 different programs ranging from Web Browsers to Messaging to Security and more. After a user selects his or her preferred list of apps, Ninite builds a custom installer for the desired 32-bit or 64-bit Windows or Linux platform. The installer then silently installs all the apps and will not install any third party toolbars that may have been included with any of the apps.
Ninite will also update any apps on a system if a user simply reruns the installer. This will save an enormous amount of time keeping apps up to date and secure on a system.
With the release of the App Store on OS X, Apple has been able to provide a single location that caters to both downloading and updating applications without the complexity of visiting individual developers’ websites for the latest versions of the apps. Ninite’s service provides a similar although more limited feature set while combining the ability to batch install a variety of apps. Such a feature could in theory be expanded upon with the Microsoft Update service to update any third party apps and would most likely be included as part of the Windows Store service in Windows 8.
