Baulk

Baulk is a minimalist and portable package manager tailored for the Windows ecosystem. Born out of the need to address the inefficiencies in the package manager command devi of Clangbuilder, Baulk offers a performance-oriented solution, avoiding the pitfalls of PowerShell-based alternatives like devi.

Unlike winget or scoop, the tool is designed to be portable, and hence, you can carry the entire package manager on a USB drive or any portable storage medium. You can easily use and manage packages across different Windows systems without the need for a formal installation process.

Another distinction from the classic managers is that each package resides in its own directory. The strict isolation prevents conflicts between different packages, ensuring that the invocation of programs within a package doesn't interfere with other packages. The advantage of the approach is that software installations are more stable and reliable, especially when you are dealing with multiple versions of the same software.

Lastly, the tool supports virtual environments, allowing you to maintain separate environments for different major versions of the same software. For example, you can switch between openjdk and msjdk seamlessly. This way, you can avoid version conflicts, and have a more organized and efficient software development or usage environment.