Alexandro is completely right about the importance of making this process effortless for OOo users.
The Dashboard concept we have been working on may be a good foundation for the seamless browsing and installation of extensions he has described--indeed, it is inspired by the ease of downloading and playing content from the iTunes Store through the iTunes application. Modify that concept for browsing, downloading and installing extensions, and I think it is a winner. There's work to do on the concept, but I created an initial mockup and wrote down some ideas here: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Dashboard_Concept It does not explicitly show browsing and installing extensions, but I think that is a natural next step to the concept shown on the page above. Please feel free to contribute your ideas and comments! -Ben On Thursday, April 16, 2009, at 02:08PM, "Alexandro Colorado" <[email protected]> wrote: >On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 4:58 AM, Florian Effenberger ><[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi Martin, >> >>> Based on the proposal >>> http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/ESC/Criteria_for_bundling_extensions >>> we got the following requirements from technical point of view: >> >> thanks for bringing this to our attention (and sorry for my late reply). >> >> The most important question to me is: Shall we bundle extensions at all? I > >No but my thought is that we should make a GUI package manager smarter >and able to browse and get the extensions through OOo. > >Firefox is the ugliest way to manage extensions, compared to KDE theme >manager is lights away from achieving a good User eXperience. > >A Package manager (found in Tools->Extensions) should act as an RSS >reader and be able to 'catch' and order the extensions repository and >also be able to install with one click. > >> agree to the positive effects of extensions, like developement independent >> from the main code and only adding features for the user when needed - but >> this also can lead to some kind of problems. > >Marketing should also not bundle extension marketing with OOo like >what happened on 3.0 when we decide to push the PDF import extension >as a core part of the new version of OOo. > >> How shall we bundle? Via a link, so the user get the most current version >> from the internet, or via file bundling? In the last case, chances are high >> that the extension is already outdated when we ship it, and that the >> download grows and grows without an actual need for the individual user. > >Already explained but we should bundle a download manager for the most >stable extension, similar to our 'version checker' of OOo. > >> For 3.0, we had lots of features announced that were available as extension, >> like PDF import and presenter screen. Although they haven't been included in >> the main download, I didn't hear many complaints about the features >> "missing" from the main download. > >Althought that might be true I still think is a huge liability. > >> I would prefer to NOT file-bundle extensions in the main download. Such kind >> of bundling can easily achieved via CD/DVD distributions like our PrOOo-Box >> (www.prooo-box.org). For the main download, we can link from within the >> installer to our extension repository or a dedicated web site with >> information on how to get more features. In terms of marketing, we should >> better distinct between "features in the core" and "features via >> extensions", so everyone knows what he gets. >> >> That way, we can avoid technical problems but also keep the download size of >> OOo small. Remember, we already have lots of issues with the size of our >> downloads in the mirror network, so I definitely do not want to foster them >> :-) >> >> Florian >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] >> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] >> >> > > > >-- >Alexandro Colorado >OpenOffice.org Español >IM: [email protected] > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] >For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
