Hi,
Since it seems that the download page in its current and that proposed
form requires JavaScript anyways, why not use JavaScript to detect the
conditions of the target environment and offer one tailored default
download with an option for "other downloads" in the fashion that
firefox does it or in the fashion that i implemented on
http://marketing.openoffice.org/tryouts/Why.OpenOffice.org/en/download.htm ?
We could indeed do some OS recommendation, but language selection is
sadly not possible. The get variables that your script generates, need
to go somewhere... and in the case of OpenOffice.org that is
http://openoffice.bouncer.osuosl.org/ . Great you might think, version,
operating system and language are all supported variables... sad thing
though is that not every combination retrieves a link... so de (German)
will work for 2.1.0 (but it probably didn't work for 2.1.0 in start),
but not for nl (Dutch), or es (Spanish), while both versions are
actually available. And secondly, not all languages are part of this
dropdown.
Currently we are using javascript as well add an extra line to 'This is
the (US) English version of OpenOffice.org, it is available in other
languages too.', we write 'You might be interested in ' ... followed by
the english name for the language detected by the browser.
This does not include 'preferred language' btw, and with firefox I have
doubts whether it sends more than OS language (on multiple levels a
browser might send information about language-settings, and firefox only
sends a limited set of this).
A Firefox like implementation could well replace the download button on
the main page and turn it into a one-click-download, with the "other
downloads" link pointing to the download page.
I have promoted this type of button as well... but it resulted in a <ul>
inside of the button referring to several ways of obtaining OOo which is
imho definitely not the way to go. I would like it a lot to have such
button. And...
To clarify:
It is well possible to check via JavaScript for:
* operating system
* operating system language
* presence of Java runtime (in the browser)
A one click download however is obstructed by the fact that the bouncer
website for openoffice.org doesn't have all languages available. If that
would be the case, usability of the download process could indeed be
greatly improved to the ease of downloading firefox...
These are all implemented on the above link. Of course, this would
require to maintain the JavaScript file in regards to new releases.
My implementation is here, if one wants to have a look:
http://marketing.openoffice.org/tryouts/Why.OpenOffice.org/scripts/preconfigDL.js
There doesn't seem to be much maintanance work in this js, but there
should be more maintanance work in bouncer (and maybe the release
process, demanding at least to have a certain set of languages available
on launch) to make it work like you want to.
g.,
Maarten
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