InstallAware 2025 Source Codes Available

[JohnGaver]

You may always access the source code for the latest shipping version of InstallAware Multi Platform at:

https://github.com/installaware/IAMP

While we could not have open sourced our Flagship Windows Installer product even if we wanted to (due to multiple closed source third party dependencies, including the Delphi compiler itself and many closed source third party components), InstallAware Multi Platform, being based on an open source compiler (Free Pascal/Lazarus [ https://www.lazarus-ide.org ]) and having no closed source dependencies, provided us with the perfect opportunity to open everything up!

Now open for your contributions, research at large, and security audits; InstallAware Multi Platform is virtually identical to our Flagship Windows Installer product; even including some notable benefits absent from its bigger cousin:

o Console Mode Interactive Setup Engine: Automatically renders all your (custom) GUI dialogs in pure character mode. An April Fool's joke turns real (https://www.installaware.com/blog/?p=27) to ensure the greatest compatibility with Linux systems when your GUI cannot boot for any reason.

o Wine Targeting: Install files and registry keys not onto the physical operating system, but a specifically targeted Wine bottle (which bottle itself you may also install using our Wine Application Runtime).

o macOS and Linux Support: Native Code Setup Engines, IDEs, Setup Capture, Command Line Builds, and Dialog Designers for x86_64 and aarch64 on both Apple and Linux (Linux GUI widgets supported include Qt5 and GTK2).

Q: Is it really free for production use?

A: Unless you're a sanctioned entity restricted by our EULA (https://github.com/installaware/IAMP?ta ... -1-ov-file), yes it's really free for production use.

Q: Is everything included?

A: Everything that is Pascal (Lazarus) is included. Some notable omissions are:

- Compression Engines: We have always used custom builds of 7-Zip to provide you with the best of compression at InstallAware, and InstallAware Multi Platform continues this tradition. Of course, these sources are directly available from 7-Zip (https://7-zip.org), as they are not part of this project proper.

- Self-Extractor Engines: We do intend to open source these C/C++ bits on a future date. Until then, you may use your own favorite archivers on Linux and Windows (and macOS) to pack your setups into single files. macOS builds already use DMG containers for self-extraction instead of 7-Zip archives (the compression ends up being worse, but you may work around that using InstallAware's signature Web Builds, of course).

- Creative Assets: Most open source projects exclude design assets, and ours is no exception. You will find many built-in themes, templates, samples, etc. to be absent from the collection - but we have strived to deliver a fully self-contained package that works out-of-the-box for you, even in the absence of everything else that has been omitted.

- Application Runtimes: Due to size concerns, binary dependencies of Application Runtimes, such as Wine for macOS (https://github.com/Gcenx/macOS_Wine_builds) and Wine for Linux (https://github.com/Kron4ek/Wine-Builds/releases) are also excluded (even when we had to build some of those packages ourselves, and they are not generally available elsewhere [such as our Wine distribution for aarch64 Linux]).

Q: Is it maintained regularly?

A: Absolutely, updates to InstallAware Multi Platform follow our regular release cadence.

Q: What are you still selling?

A: Our sale packages haven't changed. You may buy the pre-built binaries (including our private assets and runtimes), saving yourself the effort of compiling and packaging the entire product (no matter how easy we've made it for you) for a whopping seven (7) platforms. You may also buy support, training, and consulting for troubleshooting, general assistance, and hands-on work with your projects respectively, just as before.

Q: Is there a reason to keep using your Flagship closed source product?

A: Indeed, InstallAware Multi Platform looks, feels, and works exactly the same as its bigger, closed source cousin. It will even load your existing projects, scripts, dialogs, and even localizations verbatim - saving them in the new InstallAware Multi Platform project/script/dialog/localization format. You could certainly move everything over today if you wanted to, with just the few notable exceptions below:

* Technology Runtimes: None of the Windows runtimes are available in the InstallAware Multi Platform product. Of course, when you import any project making use of them, existing runtime installation scripts are imported seamlessly as well.

* Plug-Ins: Your existing Windows plug-ins cannot run on macOS or Linux. While we have natively implemented critical plug-ins such as File Bag, you would not be able to use your other plug-ins yet with InstallAware Multi Platform. You may implement them directly, or even build a plug-in bridge (which is actually one of the ideas for improvement we have featured on the project page at GitHub [ https://github.com/installaware/IAMP/bl ... i-platform ]).

* Automation: There's no cross-platform automation interface for InstallAware Multi Platform, but the need for one is largely obviated thanks to the source code availability (and ample code samples, especially as part of the new Project OS/3 Wizard); which enable you to directly emit any code you want, directly within the IDE, without having to use an external automation library.

* No Registry Support in PackageAware: Since the Registry is only available on Windows, cross-platform setup capture excluded it by design. This may make it inconclusive to use PackageAware for some Windows-exclusive applications.

Q: How easy is it really to build InstallAware Multi Platform?

A: Very easy. Our documentation gives you step-by-step instructions (https://github.com/installaware/IAMP/bl ... structions), and we provide our own build scripts to make it all even easier. We're also here to provide you with any help you may need building it, too! Feel free to just ask away at the forums, right here.