Install-SqlServer VS au-packages

We have tones of PowerShell and it works like a charm, although we have some experienced posh devs

We also test REST backend in PowerShell using Pester.

PowerShell is preferred in this house because

a) you can run it on any Windows OS on the spot and modify it in ad hoc manner, you can even debug it with breakpoints etc easily Also our Linux machines have it.

b) its powerful, you can do anything in it with few lines of code (one case: we did 10 million SOAP requests per day for entire country)

c) many Windows toolsets use it like SqlServer, IIS etc. which makes management way easier (for example we use [1] to install sql server on all dev/prod machines)

d) we find it way easier to keep CI/CD vars in PowerShell hashtables then in yaml, so our yaml fiels are one liners and everything works locally.

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[1] https://github.com/majkinetor/Install-SqlServer

I maintain a chocolatey package for Windows. I currently use their snapshot as a source which is not ideal. I could switch to GH actions.

https://github.com/majkinetor/au-packages/tree/master/freerd...

I am only using chocolatey to install stuff and I regularly create packages for it. I worked hard to make what I need stable and not depend on their existence - [2] for examples releases packages on GH and there is a handy script to install from there. I also created AU for it [3] and managed to convince people to embed software in packages so packages always work (you can cache them on your own via file system, artifactory, nexus etc). You can also host your own gallery in number of different ways. So, in short, there is escape plan. TBH, it looks like choco is going better then ever. And you can't simply find any better repository for sw, its better and more up to date then most linux package repos (on par with Arch).

> I am not that into the way MS is doing the winget thing,

That is years away IMO, no scripting there too, and it moves like a snail. I would really be embarrassed if I were leading that team.

> I see a lot of manual scripts for installing things on Windows CI systems

Yeah, most people suck, like their scripts :-) There is literary 0 chance for you to make reliable installation script in general that works in any context.

> I really like chocolatey but I am worried it will disappear soon.

Just use it. I don't work for them. I maintain core team repo [2]. Its great tool now. What will happen tomorrow nobody knows but like I said, you have escape plan and even if they go down your CI will still work for decades if you want if you set it up properly.

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[1] https://github.com/majkinetor/au-packages

[2] https://github.com/chocolatey-community/chocolatey-coreteamp...

[3] https://github.com/majkinetor/au