On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 3:04 AM, Zero3 <zero3 at zerosplayground.dk> wrote: > but assuming Linux is the future, and Linux apps ought to be packaged anyway, > we only have Windows > and Mac left, leaving less reason
An unwarranted assumption. Even of today's visitors to freenetproject.org, who will be heavily biased towards "geekier" operating systems, just under 80% are Windows users (Linux is (surprisingly) higher than Mac, 11.1% compared to 8.4%). As open source fans we all want to see Linux do well on the desktop, but we can't allow our hopes for Linux to lead to sub-optimal decision making when it comes to maximizing Freenet's adoption. Windows *is* the most important OS for Freenet adoption. Whether Macs or Linux come next is up for debate, but at the very least, a simple and elegant installation is important on all three platforms. Really what we need are dedicated maintainers for the installers on Windows, Mac, and perhaps a few of the major Linux distros. An installer that works on all three platforms has many advantages, but will never be as smooth or intuitive as platform-specific installers because people have differing expectations of each platform. For example, Windows users tend to expect a Wizard-style installer. Mac users expect a DMG containing an executable App that they can drag to their Applications folder. Linux users expect to be able to use apt-get, yum, or something else depending on their specific distro. The question is: how can we make it as easy as possible for these third-party platform installer creators? The first answer is: we must document, in a platform agnostic manner, what the installer must do to get Freenet up and running. Next, we must identify anything that can be improved in Freenet that would make writing these installers easier. Lastly, we could put out a high-profile appeal for people to help us create solid intuitive platform-specific installers (assuming no existing volunteers want to take on the task). Ian. -- Ian Clarke CEO, Uprizer Labs Email: ian at uprizer.com Ph: +1 512 422 3588 Fax: +1 512 276 6674
