ORB: Next-generation Linux applications

ORB: Next-generation Linux applications

Orbital Apps brings us a new software package type ORB, which supports portable software, interactive installation wizard, and offline usage.

Portable software is very convenient. It is mainly because they can run directly without any administrator permissions, and can store all the settings and data with the U disk. The interactive installation wizard allows us to easily install applications.

Open runnable bundle (ORB)

ORB is a free and open source package format, which is different from other package formats in many ways. Some features of ORB:

• Compression: All packages are squashfs compressed to reduce the volume by up to 60%.
• Portable mode: If a portable ORB application runs on a mobile device, it stores all the settings and data on it.
• Secure: All ORB packets are signed using PGP/RSA and distributed through TLS 1.2.
• Offline: All dependencies are packaged into the software package, so you do not need to download dependencies.
• Open Software Package: the ORB software package can be attached as an ISO image.

Type

There are two types of ORB applications:

• Portable Software
• SuperDEB

1. Portable ORB Software

The portable ORB software can run immediately without any prior installation. This means that it does not require administrator permissions and does not depend on it! You can download it directly from the Orbital Apps website.

And because it supports portable mode, you can copy it to the U disk. All its settings and data will be stored on the U disk together with it. You just need to connect the U disk to any machine running Ubuntu 16.04.

Portable software available

At present, more than 35 software are provided in the form of a fuse package, including some very popular software, such as Deluge, Firefox, GIMP, Libreoffice, uGet and VLC.

Use portable Software

Follow these steps to use the portable ORB software:

Open the properties of the ORB package and add the running permission to the ORB package.

Add the running permission on the permission tab.
Double-click it.

• Download the desired software package from the Orbital Apps website.
• Move it to the desired location (Local disk/U disk ).
• Open the directory that stores the ORB package.

Wait a few seconds to prepare it for running. Success.

2. SuperDEB

Another type of ORB software is SuperDEB. SuperDEB is simple. The interactive Installation Wizard makes the software installation process much smoother. If you do not like to install software from a terminal or Software Center, superDEB is your dish.

The most interesting part is that you do not need an Internet connection during installation, because all dependencies are packaged by the Installation Wizard.

Available SuperDEB

More than 60 software are provided in the form of SuperDEB. Some of them are popular: Chromium, Deluge, Firefox, GIMP, Libreoffice, uGet, and VLC.

Use the SuperDEB Installation Wizard

• Download the required SuperDEB from the Orbital Apps website.
• Add the running permission (attribute> permission) to it as before ).
• Double-click the SuperDEB Installation Wizard and follow the instructions below:
• After installation, you can use it normally.

ORB software compatibility

From Orbital Apps, we can see that they are fully compatible with Ubuntu 16.04 [64-bit].

Compatibility with other releases is not guaranteed. However, we can say that it applies to all derivative versions of Ubuntu 16.04 (Ubuntu tumate, Ubuntu tugnome, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.) and Ubuntu 16.04-based releases (such as the coming Linux Mint 18. We do not know whether Orbital Apps has plans to expand its support to other versions of Ubuntu or Linux.

If you often use portable ORB software on your system, you can consider installing the ORB starter. It is not necessary, but it is recommended to install it for a better experience. The simplest ORB starter installation process is to open the terminal and enter the following command:

wget -O - https://www.orbital-apps.com/orb.sh | bash

If the software I need is not in the list?

If you need a software that does not currently have an ORB package available, you can contact Orbital Apps. The good news is that Orbital Apps is working on a tool to create an ORB package. So soon we hope we can make our own ORB package!

This article is about installing software offline. If you are interested, you can see how to update or upgrade Ubuntu offline.

So what do you think of Orbital Apps's portable software and SuperDEB Installation Wizard? Will you try it?

From: https://linux.cn/article-7518-1.html

Address: http://www.linuxprobe.com/orb-linux-app.html