different OSes have different standard way of installing package dependencies; in OS X, all library dependencies are copied in the App folder.

Windows application developers have both options; they can install a library as a subpackage (for example, game installers would install directX library). But usually the user cannot choose if he wants the dependencies to be copied or be shared on the system

in Linux, package managers (for example, apt-get) will resolve recursively the dependencies and install them system wide. This of course, doesn't necessarily solve the problem of dependency duplication, since applications might still use different versions or builds of the same source library

For instance, some applications will require libboost-filesystem1.42 but damn, i have libboost-filesystem-1.49 available, but that won't help because the package resolver can't figure out that i already have one.

On the other hand, i don't want an old library being installed in system-wide paths, because i have already another version in there.

Question: is there, or will there be a standard package manager option to allow dependencies for certain applications be installed in application-specific folders (like App folders in Mac OS X)?

Different OSes have different standard way of installing package dependencies; in OS X, all library dependencies are copied in the App folder.

Windows application developers have both options; they can install a library as a subpackage (for example, game installers would install directX library). But usually the user cannot choose if he wants the dependencies to be copied or be shared on the system

In Linux, package managers (for example, apt-get) will resolve recursively the dependencies and install them system wide. This of course, doesn't necessarily solve the problem of dependency duplication, since applications might still use different versions or builds of the same source library

For instance, some applications will require libboost-filesystem1.42 but damn, I have libboost-filesystem-1.49 available, but that won't help because the package resolver can't figure out that I already have one.

On the other hand, I don't want an old library being installed in system-wide paths, because I have already another version in there.

Question: is there, or will there be a standard package manager option to allow dependencies for certain applications be installed in application-specific folders (like App folders in Mac OS X)?