It would be good to RECOGNIZE Mac, Linux, Solaris, but it will not be
possible to offer one click for these. Those operating systems will get
special pages explaining how to continue. Unless of course it is a piece
of cake to deliver one-click to them as well... but I am afraid that is
not possible for reasons expressed by Christian, among which the QA and
release process.
The windows (one-click) download button would mention:
---------------------------------------------
I want to download OpenOffice.org for Windows
<small>English - version 2.4 - 135MB - with Java</small>
---------------------------------------------
<small>Other operating systems, CD-ROM's etc.</small>
The 'not certain' OS'es will get the following button:
---------------------------------------------
I want to download OpenOffice.org
<small>Mac version available</small>
---------------------------------------------
<small>Order OOo on CD, downloads via P2P</small>
We will document the code for local communities, so that they can
recreate the exact page (which I would promote).
Alongside with this I would propose to alert users with another
preferred language in an unobtrusive way. An e.g. yellow alert message
appears at the top of the main page stating there is a dedicated page
available for people with language X, e.g.
Mogelijk bent u geïnteresseerd in de Nederlandstalige (NL) versie van
OpenOffice.org
which translates to:
You might be interested in the Dutch (NL) version of OpenOffice.org
ACTION: So what is the plan?
Could someone demonstrate that detecting Java doesn't have to be as
sluggish as at the Sun Java website?
http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp?detect=jre&try=1
This is very slow, and unacceptable for our website. Only in some kind
of wizard like procedure... but preferably not. Then it is better to
just promote the with JRE version, just in case...
g.,
Maarten
--below an unanswered response to Christians objections --
Christian may be right that a one click is not the best
at the moment. Still, I wouldn't reject the idea upfront. I assume that
most people download OOo for the system you are working on. Only power
users like you, and me, may download OOo for somebody else, burn it on
CD and give it away... but I don't think that this is most typical
behaviour (we might try to get some data on this by monitoring the
current contribution page...
A one click download should be possible. I like the model of
Firefox for this. Clear download button with an automatically generated
default for OS and language, and below it, in smaller print "Alternative
versions and means to get OpenOffice.org" (or something along these
lines).
So how does this work with OOo?
OOo has versions with or without JRE for Windows, (and of course
english and other languages, but more on that later on)
As André pointed out, the java plugin can be detected. If it is not
detected, it is either not there, or more may be wrong with the JRE
installation, thus reinstall may be appropriate anyhow...
CON: on the other hand, how quick is java detection? Sun's site is
rather slow in detecting this, I have no practical experience with this
and it has to be quick. Is this your objection as well?
OOo has versions in RPM and DEB format for Linux (and some with JRE,
some without)
OOo has versions for MacIntel, MacPPC, (all without JRE)
OOo has versions for other systems as well.
Shaun said the different Macs can be detected, this can be read from the
HTTP_USER_AGENT, and also other systems as well?
Can we discern between Debian deriviates (among which ubuntu) and
redhats (thats rpm right?) using the HTTP_USER_AGENT string?
For my Firefox @ubuntu this works:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071022
Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.8
CON: Can get really messy when detecting all these things correctly
Default to english and still start the download? Bad, bad, bad for
non-english users...
There is still one click required to start it... do you think
Mozilla.com working bad bad bad in that respect?
Default to version with JRE? Bad, bad, bad when the nl-community is
not QA'ing the version of OOo that has JRE included, doesn't build
versions with JRE at all (AFAIK only Sun does build versions with JRE)
Does it matter technically? Of course there are less variable properties
if the product is tested with only the VM shipped along with it...
I mean, do you think that a QA for an without JRE version differs from a
QA with JRE, or are you talking about availability?
Please clarify why there is a problem with QA...
Native-language versions in general: How would you deal with different
versions being QA'd / approved at different points in time?
Report version in the button?
Costs: somebody needs to do the javascript needed for this. If we focus
on only OS, this is very easy.
No, it is not. We have multiple versions per OS, and even more when
you get to the languages.
Well, it is not hard when we only limit ourselves to the English
version, as we are doing right now as well.
And when you restrict yourself to english, how does that fit with the
goal to rise awareness for the nl-communities, giving the User support
in her own language?
We can address the nl-community thing somewhere else as well...
I /still/ don't see a one-click solution, and honestly I still don't
see what is wrong when
the user has to do two clicks. Is the user really that dumb so that
she doesn't know what
operating system she runs?
Some believe/know(?) users are really that dumb. I am not sure, but I do
know that every additional cognitive effort required for something users
are not sure about is another point where we can loose this person.
Since we want as many users to download OOo as possible, it important to
reduce chances in loosing users (can we have data on this?)
I fear that all of those "downloading is too complicated" boils down
to this very additional
click on the contributing page....
I definitely think that this is indeed one of the main concerns... and
the delayed download with a contribution page is preferred by me as well.
Proposed solution:
We can offer one click download for only those who we can reliably
detect, or offer the right download option with reasonably certainty
(i.e. IE users -> Windows download, and just add JRE to it)
If the language is not English we can change the function and text of
the button: instead of Download OpenOffice it could state Get
OpenOffice.org in your <language here>, forwarding to one's own
language. Something similar can be done for non official OS'es as well.
Contribution page will instead of requiring the user to click, feature a
redirect to the file.
g.,
Maarten
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