Using CERMM

Software and crates

Pick an app once; every machine gets it from its own package manager.

The catalog

Devices → Software. About 70 apps to start, each mapped to its name in winget, apt, dnf, pacman and flatpak (checked against the real indexes), with icons (Flathub's or the maker's, cached on the server).

• Search also looks in the winget index (Microsoft's, downloaded daily) and Flathub. Add puts a hit in the catalog.
• Pins keep the apps you use at the top.
• Crates: a set of apps pushed together, kept for the next machine ("New office PC", "Dev box").

Installing on machines

Install or Remove an app (or a crate) and pick machines, or a group or tag. Before you start, the dialog says per machine what each app would do: via apt firefox, already installed, no package, commands off.

It's a batch: one job per app per machine, one at a time per machine (package managers lock), all machines at once, on a live grid. A job that's never picked up skips the rest for that machine, with the reason.

After any job the agent sends a fresh software list (in about a second), so what's installed is right straight away.

On a device

Install software on a device's page opens with quick software: pinned apps (or favourites) and a search of the catalog, each marked installed (✓, click to remove) or why it can't be. One click installs on that machine with the output live. Crate pushes a whole crate.

The raw package-manager box is folded under it: Search, Install, Remove by package name, and Upgrade all, for apt, dnf, pacman, flatpak and winget.

The device's Software list has Uninstall on each row.

Not yet

• Homebrew on macOS.
• Editing an app's package names in the app.
• Showing which installs are out of date.