Chocolatey is the only thing I use to install stuff both on CI and on each dev machine and I regularly create packages for it [1]. I worked hard to make what I need stable and not depend on their existence - [2] and all the repos using the same methodology release packages on GH [4] 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 [5] 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 many years if you set it up properly.

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[1] https://gist.github.com/majkinetor/a700c70b8847b29ebb1c918d4...

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

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

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

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