When I'm done with that part I'd like to go around and collect some userland apps from here and put them in one package with install scripts. If a user wanted to install any of the apps they would just have to double-click on the install script (ideally).

Sounds great. I'm all for anything that makes my stuff easier to install. I also think you'd want to allow for the script to ask the user questions, e.g. "where do you want to install this to?"

Mike Schrag mentioned some good ideas on a common format for these install packages, and he seems willing to integrate this functionality into jEmplode. Not sure if what you have will complement what he's doing or not, but it's worth looking at.