[alerighi]

> I suspect the final form for software installation is probably where iOS and Android are going in the EU, where there's a single means of installing software to the device so that everything can be sandboxed properly, but the acquisition/update process can be pointed to a URL/Store that the user has pre-approved.

Basically how Linux distributions works since the beginning. Tough at the start the installation source was not remote but a CD-ROM things didn't change.

You have a repository of packages (that can be on a local source as a CD or remote source such as an HTTP/FTP server), that have some sort of signature (on Linux usually the pagkage is signed with GPG) with some keys that the user trusts (and the default are installed on the system), and a software that allows to install, uninstall and update the packages.

Android/iOS arrived later, but they didn't invent anything.

[efreak]

Android/iOS didn't invent this, no, however you're missing the sandbox part. Most Linux package managers don't sandbox anything.