Package Manager in the Linux sense is not an Installation Manager which is what Windows uses..
Check out the package manager in Ubuntu.. What it does:
1. search for all available software, supported by canonical.
2. download the software and all depdencies.
3. verify downloaded software completeness to an MD5 or other method before install, also match crytographic signatures. (where does Windows software come from, the author? Your guess is as good as mine. But in Ubuntu's package manager there can be no doubt where).
4. deinstall the software and either keep or remove the dependencies.
5. upgrade software and dependencies.
6. filter software by licensing method.
7. install all software matching a wildcard, like "gstreamer*"
And if you want to install the way windows does, from a file, look around for ".deb" files, they are all over the web.
Also when you write tutorials for windows, how do you describe to users where to get the files? In Ubuntu it is "apt-get install PACKAGE", in windows, it is goto "trustworthy/untrustworthy website", download this file (not always easy to determine where), and decompress with RAR or zip, does Windows come with rar, oh yes need to get winrar.. Decompress, double-click on executable file.. Ooops no no no virus-scanner this isn't a virus..
Windows is so much easier (*not*).
Linux recognizes common hardware INSTANTLY. And usually you don't need to install drivers.. If you do, you are probably running hardware that will not be supported in a couple of years. So yes, most Windows hardware is "experiments". Linux just adopts that which is more reliable and nerd adopted which is usually the best in the long run.
Windows recognizes almost nothing but simple hardware, but it wastes about 3 minutes with its bureaucratic protocols. Like say a usb mouse --- Oh it's a Human Interface Device --- It's a Logitech Mouse --- oh now you can use it. Is this optimal?
OR You need an installation disk to install the driver, but is it the driver in the Windows 98 sub folder or the one in the NT sub folder? Install both, why not? Ooops, driver conflict.. Well disable one, try it out, if it doesn't work,do the other.. Great it works, except for the temporary stall that occurs every 5 minutes, but that is ignorable.
Do you have a wifi card? Multiple, like me? Do you swap your USB wifi's out and have to re=establish connection with the router? In Ubuntu I have one interface for all my wifi cards.. In Windows, I have multiple device drivers, one for each card, and I have a choice, either use the driver's interface for selection a server to connect to or use Windows.. Which in the long run only adds confusion.. Beyond that, I have two drivers running in memory, each possibly polling the system for the existence of its hardware.. Hardly optimal.. In Ubuntu, I can connect any device in and out, over and over, and the OS doesn't complain. Wifi out, okay disconnected, wifi in, connecting, connected, wifi out, disconnected.. If you did this on windows, you'd have to designate which server to connect to and might have to pull some tricks like configure the driver to use the Windows wifi manager.. But such changes don't usually get saved, so you must do them over and over and over again, everytime you diconnect and reconnect the device.. Not only that, but the process is different for every f*cking proprietary driver that every device you have uses.. Isn't software patents and private industry grand? They give us all these unique technologies that the average would not give a f*ck about, unless they couldn't get something done, in which case it is a bitch to deal with.
Not unlike hardware support on Linux, but nobody ever considers the alternative to Linux hardware support.