Re (tilly) 3: Perl-based Installshield clone

[tilly]

But do you envision software being shipped at some point expecting to be installed with your install package?

Do you expect companies who do that to go through the effort of also providing .rpm and .deb format installs that they have tested? Realistically I don't think that will happen. It would be great if it did, but I try to be realistic about these things and I just don't see them doing that duplication of work just because some tech thinks other techs would like it.

That is my concern. Personally if I have a choice, I will not use software on Linux that requires a pretty GUI installation. It is something that I hated about Windows, and with apt and friends I have no shortage of software that I like which doesn't force me to sit like a monkey and click buttons. (Or force me to do undue work trying to script an installation that was clearly designed for marketing and not for a tech.)

This may be unusual, but that is how I am. As Unix as Literature points out, people who are attracted to Unix often actively prefer working with text to working with a gui. Of course there are many people in the Linux world today who are there for other reasons and don't share this underlying bias, but we still exist.

For these reasons and more, the way that I would like to see this itch scratched is in defining hooks in the .rpm or .deb format which allow someone to distribute software in an accepted format which will, if installed with an optional front end, give people a nice graphical installation. That is, instead of creating a portable tool in which people define their install-shield like install once and say, "OK, that is it for all of our platforms" (leaving me a second class citizen) I would like to see the GUI install not come into conflict with existing and accepted methods of installing and managing software.

And, of course, such a front end to rpm or apt could easily have some default GUI that it uses for the inevitable packages that have no GUI hooks installed. And you would probably join me in avoiding that front end when you are trying to install a new machine with about a thousand packages...

[Anonymous Monk]

Well that was a little bit mellodramatic (IMHO, like everything I say is ;-)

But do you envision software being shipped at some point expecting to be installed with your install package?

Does it matter?

It's a great pet project to stretch out them brain muscles, and at least two "developers" will be using it (Jouke and I).

Do you expect companies who do that to go through the effort of also providing .rpm and .deb format installs that they have tested? Realistically I don't think that will happen. It would be great if it did, but I try to be realistic about these things and I just don't see them doing that duplication of work just because some tech thinks other techs would like it.

What's he got to do with *companies* or other format installs?

I don't think you're trying to be realistic. If companies want to truly promote their product, they'll provide it in every format possible, after all, I doubt they'd want to lose potential sales, for a few hours extra work.

I would like to see the GUI install not come into conflict with existing and accepted methods of installing and managing software.

Jouke has no control over that, nor should that be his concern (he's not Bill Gates).

That is my concern. Personally if I have a choice, I will not use software on Linux that requires a pretty GUI installation. It is something that I hated about Windows, and with apt and friends I have no shortage of software that I like which doesn't force me to sit like a monkey and click buttons. (Or force me to do undue work trying to script an installation that was clearly designed for marketing and not for a tech.)
...
For these reasons and more, the way that I would like to see this itch scratched is in defining hooks in the .rpm or .deb format which allow someone to distribute software in an accepted format which will, if installed with an optional front end, give people a nice graphical installation. That is, instead of creating a portable tool in which people define their install-shield like install once and say, "OK, that is it for all of our platforms" (leaving me a second class citizen) I would like to see the GUI install not come into conflict with existing and accepted methods of installing and managing software.

My sentiment exactly, but, what are the chances of Jouke actually getting the developers .rpm and .deb to add these hooks. He shoud make the suggestion, as should you, but this is all besides the point.

I suggest that Jouke provide some kind of a "non-interactive" switch option, where the default setting will be applied, and the user won't be prompted, or some type of "config-file", which would also be non-interactive, but the config options would be read from a file. This would of course be an *additional* feature down the road.

--/ Mustafa