[bt-devel] Some thoughts...

[Martin Gruner]

Hey Brad,

I agree with you. Installation procedures are too complicated. 

But: There is no real way out of this til now, afaict. 
LSB (http://www.linuxbase.org/) is one major effort, and there is also another 
smaller project going on which is still beta (http://autopackage.org/). Feel 
free to put some research into this and to submit patches etc., but don't 
expect us to drop our current make system until there is something real in 
sight that is widely accepted. Bundling Sword in BibleTime is not possible 
imo.

Martin

Am Mittwoch, 4. Februar 2004 13:06 schrieb Brad:
> As a committed Christian, while I am supportive of what you are doing in
> trying to create some Bible software for Linux, I find that the install
> process is "typically Linux" ie there are 101 traps for the unwary,
> there are little quirks that need to be overcome, and documentation is
> cryptic at best for a newbie.
>
> In most Windows installations, the user gets a single executable that
> they double-click on and it does everything necessary to get the
> software working. Sometimes there may be an additional package, but
> mostly it all gets wrapped up in one installer and "just works". So many
> times I have tried to install a Linux package and then had to manually
> edit configuration files, ensure that such and such a utility or library
> is installed, some other setting is set correctly etc etc etc. This is
> very often way beyond the skills of a standard user, and hence Windows
> is the platform of choice for many.
>
> While I do understand some of the complexities of Linux, I do feel that
> many of these mundane tasks like editing config files etc could be
> automated and not require user input to get the system working. For
> example, would it be possible to bundle Sword with Bibletime, so
> everything gets installed together? And for the standard Linux install,
> why:
>
> *./configure --prefix=<your KDE directory>*
> *make*
> *make install*
>
>
> Would it be so difficult to run these in a script and wrap it in a GUI
> icon? One that would prompt you for a root password if required and then
> your desired install directory and let you browse for it? And a pretty
> progress bar? Surely this is pretty basic stuff compared to the
> complexity of Bibletime itself. And would it be so difficult for the
> installer to check to see if all the required libraries or any other
> requirements are present, and then prompt for locations for the missing
> ones? Or better still, have an intelligent installer that had everyting
> required to get it to run and just supplied the components that were
> missing?
>
> As the majority of the world of computer users is familiar with a
> point-and-click GUI, it seems amazing to me that you still insist that
> users go back to an arcane CIF and TYPE COMMANDS IN. This is VERY
> FOREIGN for Windows or new Linux users.
>
> I have been working professionally with computers since 1983 and with
> Linux since 1997, and I have not been able to easily get it to work.
> What chance a Windows-only user who wants to try Linux?
>
> It is exciting that Novell and Sun have seriously entered the desktop
> Linux space, as we may at last see a push (read: competition) for a
> user-friendly experience. Even Red Hat have now agreed to try and
> develop a Linux desktop. It's amazing what a little competition can do! :-)
>
> And I think that I can safely say that very soon installation procedures
> like the one above will have no place in a modern Linux distribution.
>
> Is this food for thought, or do you feel that with Linux we will always
> try and force users to use the CIF and try and find the missing software
> components on the WWW by themselves?
>
> Regards,
> Brad
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