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Just wanted to get your guys' opinions over what the best of these Windows package managers. I've been using Choco for a while but considering switching to Winget, should I do it?
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I have been using scoop for a few years now... I like it 'cause its similar to other Linux Distro package managers (apt, yum, etc.) I have also incorporated winget into my packaging process as well... as there are some packages that do not have a scoop bucket for installing.
Quite recently I started looking at incorporating chocolatey, as there are some packages that neither scoop or winget have. Never hurts to have all of them!
If your interested, I have been maintaining a public gist on github since 2018... that I run on any new machine or when I format my existing laptops. This script has been steadily improving over the years, and just configures the Windows Environment to my liking. It uses all three package sources now, and I try an updated it as needed. The gist is here - https://gist.github.com/mikepruett3/7ca6518051383ee14f9cf8ae63ba18a7
I tried Winget when it first came out and the first few things I did with it worked awesomely. I continued to use it and ran into some issues - I can't remember exactly what. It might have been a lack of packages. I think a few installs failed as well.
Long story short, I switched back to chocolatey. It just seemed to have a more extensive package selection and be more reliable.
You could use all as some people have mentioned but personally, I would like to learn the ins and outs of a single tool and stick to that. Scoop and Chocolately install software differently. One is local and one global. They also don't all install in the same locations. I think you could end up with a mess of a hard drive if you haphazardly switch from one to the next.
I'll stick with chocolatey until Winget reaches maturity and then that will probably become the standard. I'm not sure if Winget comes with Windows yet but I suspect it will at some point. Whatever is native to the environment and comes pre-installed on the environment is usually a good way to go.
Update:
One really nice thing (depending on your perspective) is that Winget installs applications where they would end up if you were to go to the website and download the installer and click through the GUI accepting the defaults. Chocolatey puts stuff in lib and tools folders which is probably nice for some things but then you have some things here and some things there.
Try to use the .install version of chocolatey packages when available; they should run through the installer (normally silent and fully automated as much as possible). .portable versions are meant to be an installer-free type of version (less system crud like registry bloat); those files had to go somewhere and with some organizational rules; devs opted for a more official place that wasn't the norm of Windows devs to do bad things like 'quietly' build it up in my documents (programs and most of their files aren't documents), on the desktop, or hiding in a temp folder until a cleanup process wreaks havoc on the work. When there are multiple and you do not specify the install, I think the main package defaults to it but you also get a double package listing as the main depends on one of the .* variants. That helps keep the install list cleaner. I also keep all of my install commands (many can be combined into 1 line) and related paramaters (now I split to more than 1 command) bsaved to a text file for fast+easy reinstall on a new OS install.
Do whatever you like, man. You don't have to pick one or the other
I have all three but default on Chocolatey for familiarity and reliability.
I tried Winget several times and like its direction. Probably a few more tries will make me more likely to use it.
I find Scoop pretty redundant, but can understand why some users would pick it.