1. A computer program product, tangibly embodied on a carrier medium, for deploying software to a computer, the product comprising instructions operable to cause a processor to: receive in a computer system in which software is to be deployed a software delivery archive containing the software, the software delivery archive further containing a manifest describing the software, the manifest including a software type, the archive further containing a deployment descriptor; and perform the deployment to the computer system according to the software type and the deployment descriptor.