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Poor Linux distros. They try so hard. Nobody ever makes installers for Linux software (they don't even provide binaries unless it costs $1000+.) So the distros

by chancho 17y ago

Poor Linux distros. They try so hard. Nobody ever makes installers for Linux software (they don't even provide binaries unless it costs $1000+.) So the distros do their best to compile, test and maintain neat, orderly package repositories that won't vomit all over your filesystem and don't have tons of bugs and backdoors. And for this they are chastised, because it takes time to prepare a release. Meanwhile, Apple can take their sweet time with App Store approval, reject anything they want, not even give you the _option_ of installing things the hard way, and for this they are applauded. Clearly what Linux needs is more shiny buttons and less freedom.

rms 17y ago
>Clearly what Linux needs is more shiny buttons and less freedom. Which is why Google Chrome is a potential game changer
pmjordan 17y ago
I don't know what it's like with Ubuntu, but certainly OpenSuse has offered one-click installs for a while, e.g.: http://en.opensuse.org/Firefox http://en.opensuse.org/Firefox These aren't terribly difficult for developers to set up, certainly easier than creating an installer for Windows. I wish Mozilla, OpenOffice, etc. offered this sort of download as the default, with tarballs only for users who know what they're getting themselves into. The main pain is presumably in generating these for different distros. Novell's build service is supposed to make this easier, but I haven't tried it: http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/supported_build_targets http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/supported_build_targets One more thing that would help with this is if more browsers used the distro in the user-agent string, which would help with presenting the right installer to the user. Distro-built versions of Firefox certainly include e.g. "SUSE", but not the version. Windows and Mac browsers send the OS arch and version ("Windows NT 5.2", "Intel Mac OS X 10.5") so just sending "Linux x86_64" seems silly.

by chancho 17y ago

rms 17y ago

>Clearly what Linux needs is more shiny buttons and less freedom. Which is why Google Chrome is a potential game changer

pmjordan 17y ago

I don't know what it's like with Ubuntu, but certainly OpenSuse has offered one-click installs for a while, e.g.: http://en.opensuse.org/Firefox http://en.opensuse.org/Firefox These aren't terribly difficult for developers to set up, certainly easier than creating an installer for Windows. I wish Mozilla, OpenOffice, etc. offered this sort of download as the default, with tarballs only for users who know what they're getting themselves into. The main pain is presumably in generating these for different distros. Novell's build service is supposed to make this easier, but I haven't tried it: http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/supported_build_targets http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service/supported_build_targets One more thing that would help with this is if more browsers used the distro in the user-agent string, which would help with presenting the right installer to the user. Distro-built versions of Firefox certainly include e.g. "SUSE", but not the version. Windows and Mac browsers send the OS arch and version ("Windows NT 5.2", "Intel Mac OS X 10.5") so just sending "Linux x86_64" seems silly.