Recs.
Updated
Chocolatey NuGet is a open source Machine Package Manager, somewhat like apt-get, but built with Windows in mind.
Read Code Magazine article.
CommandsReference
Specs
Pros
Pro Easy to use
Just open powershell and type choco install firefox
to install Firefox, or choco install java
to install Java.
Cons
Con Sometimes hard to know which package to install from community package repository
The community repository contains multiple packages with similar names, making it hard to know which one to install. This is of course only related to using Chocolatey with the community repository, and you can look up the number of downloads to see which are the most widely used.
Con Unable to easily change your install directory in the free version
In the free version you must know the native installer switches and pass them through with install args. In the paid versions you have a ubiquitous install directory option where Chocolatey determines how to properly pass that to the underlying native installer.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Private folders not free
This is actually completely false - you can have internal packages in the FOSS version.