Bleeding Edge: Universal Software Installer for Ubuntu

does it install a true and functional libdvdcss?

BleedingEdge installs libdvdcss2 (script line 877) from Medibuntu (script line 329).

The entire script is very easy to follow and you are welcome to browse it and make suggestions, fork it for other OSes, etc.

Correction: Line 877 that is referred to above is actually line 887.

How does it interacts with the standard package management system of Ubuntu. Why if it only works with Ubuntu, it does not comes in a deb file to be install using the regular package management system of Ubuntu?

I ask this because I would not like to have two different package management systems runing at the same time in my computer, and, if one is already running, seems to me that that package management system should have been used to install this, not as a new package management system, but as a complement or extension of it.

Good question egrpr! BleedingEdge typically downloads using wget and installs .deb files using apt-get install. Sometimes there is no repo, just a package, in which case dpkg -i is used.

Since BleedingEdge is only a non-compiled script, it relies on various postings such as PPA or vendor packages. The repositories are located in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and are read by apt. Since adding many repositories to your packaging system can cause conflicts and security issues, BleedingEdge can remove them after installing the desired packages.

Sometimes, there is no .deb at all. In one case, Google Earth, BleedingEdge has to modify the .bin a bit before installation (Script lines 755-756). In another case, Cinelerra, there was not a suitable .deb available, so it is compiled from source. Even so, I haven't successfully compiled it for x64.

Since each program is unique, separate functions are responsible for installing them. Functions also prevent one section of code from interfering with another. Each section is fairly simple to follow for those who have a programming background.

The other parts of BleedingEdge are accomplished by using various facilities of other programs such as gconftool-2 or localepurge. In the end, BleedingEdge is really nothing more than a series of commands, each of which can be run individually at the terminal.

Script installers do not necessarily make life easier. Inact a lot of them have been found to make life harder.
Use with care.

Any chance of a Linux Mint 10 port?
It's based on Maverick. At present the problems that occur are related to the naming (Julia instead of Maverick), so the script does not work.

Here is the long answer to your question...The original intent of BleedingEdge was to support the easy installation of 'bleeding edge' software that was not available in the Ubuntu repositories. When I first started writing this script, Jaunty was the most recent distro. The advent of Karmick brought some repo issues with it, so I supported both. With Lucid, three distros were supported. The older versions of the script are still on SourceForge for your review.

Each repo and ppa moves at its own pace, and more installers were being added to BleedingEdge, therefore more visits to the sites were required to remain 'bleeding edge'. Some maintainers don't have their repos timed with the releases, creating a support gap that needs to be monitored for updates.

When Maverick came along, I refocused on the original intent. The script is meant to install 'bleeding edge' software. It is supposed to be Sarge instead of Woody. Therefore, I stripped out the legacy code.

That being said, the script should be easy to port to Mint. The variable DISTROBUTION is set on line 33 and can be changed from maverick to anything else. This works fairly well for jaunty, karmick, lucid, etc. I really don't know if Mint uses the same repos and ppa's though.

Direct .deb package downloads, such as those used by Google, full compiles, or other functions of BleedingeEdge should work without modification. Searching through the script for the variable $CODENAME, a Mint user should be able to identify and change out the affected lines very quickly.

If you have any coding experience, open the script. It is non-compiled, linear, and very easy to follow. Change some lines and repost. Forks are encouraged. Send any questions through SourceForge and I will usually answer them within 24 hours.