Automated Install of 30 Applications Across Multiple Distributions

[mpallone]

I'm setting up a large number of virtual machines, each with a basic set of about 30 applications. Obviously, I don't want to do everything manually so I'm looking for ways to automate this process. Multiple distributions (Ubuntu, Red Hat Ent., FreeBSD, CentOS, etc.) will be used, meaning I will have a few Ubuntu installs with the basic set of 30 applications, and multiple Red Hat installs with the same set, etc.

So, I'm looking for advice on automating as much of this as I can, even if it means a new form of automation for each distro. Thanks in advance.

[blnl]

This is how I automated Fedora 12 installation:

#!/bin/bash

rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

yum -y update rpm yum
yum -y update --skip-broken

yum -y install yum-plugin-fastestmirror
yum -y install yum-plugin-show-leaves yum-plugin-remove-with-leaves
yum -y install yum-plugin-security
yum -y install yum-plugin-downloadonly yum-plugin-verify

yum -y install xscreensaver-extras-gss xscreensaver-gl-extras-gss
yum -y install alacarte

yum -y install compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-gnome compiz-fusion-extras compiz-fusion-extras-gnome
yum -y install fusion-icon fusion-icon-gtk

yum -y install mplayer mplayer-gui gecko-mediaplayer smplayer
yum -y install xmms xmms-mp3 xmms-faad2 xmms-pulse xmms-skins xmms-mplayer
yum -y install xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras xine-lib-extras-freeworld
yum -y install gthumb gqview
yum -y install avidemux

yum -y install hunspell-nl hunspell-hr
yum -y install aspell-en aspell-nl aspell-hr
yum -y install autocorr-nl mythes-nl hyphen-nl hyphen-hr
yum -y install openoffice.org-langpack-nl openoffice.org-langpack-hr_HR

yum -y install squid
yum -y install subversion rapidsvn
yum -y install nedit tkcvs meld xxdiff
yum -y install tuxcmd tuxcmd-modules
yum -y install gparted testdisk
yum -y install hwbrowser qps
yum -y install tigervnc

yum -y install epiphany
yum -y install thunderbird
yum -y install gwget gftp filezilla
yum -y install mldonkey mldonkey-gui

yum -y install cinepaint
yum -y install inkscape inkscape-view
yum -y install dia k3d 

yum -y install unison
yum -y install wine
yum -y install vym

yum -y install stellarium celestia

rpm -Uvh https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/nautilus-dropbox-0.6.2-1.fedora.i386.rpm

rpm -Uvh http://download.avgfree.com/filedir/inst/avg85flx-r732-a3168.i386.rpm
service avgd start
avgupdate

yum -y install dar
rpm -Uhv http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/dargui/dargui/0.5.1/dargui-0.5.1-1.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh http://dnmouse.org/autoten-4.5-5.fc12.noarch.rpm

yum -y --enablerepo=atrpms install cinelerra
echo "0x7fffffff" > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

I used the same script (with minor changes) for Fedora 13.

I do not know for the other distros, but in openSUSE equivalent of yum is called zypper. It should work in a similar way.