Ian Clarke wrote:
> 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%).
>
Two things here:
- People might use windows on their desktop (and browse the web with
it) but intend to run their p2p software on headless servers. If you
have a look to how popular the "tarball" is and how many of the
"declared to be windows" browsers (some people spoof their browser's
user-agent in order not to be nagged by "windows-only" websites) are
interested by downloading it you will reach the conclusion that a
significant portion of our userbase is not actually *running* freenet on
windows.
- Whether we want Mac (mostly laptop users nowadays) or not to use the
network is an open question. Freenet as currently implemented doesn't
play nice with laptops... maybe we should be more clear about that on
the website.
> 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.
Agreed.
> 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.
>
Hmmm, yes, documentation can't hurt... I'll see what I can come up
with... I guess I'm the one who should write it :|
> 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).
>
I might create a package for the distribution I am using
(Linux/debian/stable/i386) but have no plan to fiddle around with other
debian-like distributions/versions. In fact I do have a package but it's
nowhere near being ready (doesn't build from source, ...) it fits my
personal use and I am happy with that.
Florent
