cmal

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. The problem here is that Mac and Linux cannot be used to install packages built with VIPM 2017. I'm not talking about earlier versions. You mention that having the source and build spec would allow someone to use a package on Mac or Linux, but that doesn't help at all in the most common case where only the .vip file is made available. As far as I know, all the packages on LabVIEW Tools Network, JKI Package Network, etc do not have source files and build spec available for download. This means that future builds of released packages made with VIPM 2017 will not be available on Mac or Linux.

From the VIPM 2017 release notes: The only solution to this is to upgrade to VIPM 2017 if you want to install any packages built in that version. The problem here is that VIPM 2017 does not exist for Mac or Linux. In fact, version 2014 is the latest available download for those platforms. This means that any new package built with Windows cannot be installed on any non-Windows systems, effectively eliminating VIPM support for Mac and Linux. If you use VIPM on Mac or Linux, you may want to hold off on upgrading to LabVIEW 2017 until this gets resolved.