Dear all, There are some fundamental differences between Linux and windows. Roughly speaking, Linux is consist of many small tools that are designed to work with each other and windows is consist of large independent applications. That is why, under Linux, we have stdin, stdout, hundreds of small tools and many scripting languages. It is natural for a Linux application like lyx to rely on other tools, but this is not at all the case for windows. Every windows application is supposed to reply only on the OS, not on other applications.
Windows users are then used to the process of downloading one big piece of software and installing it. A 20M, even 200M installer is usually not a problem for them. Working out-of-box is natural since an application usually does not depend on the existence of other applications. If lyx scores low at installation and auto-configuration, it will be considered low in quality and less mature, and will not be accepted. There has been no doubt that the current windows installation process is long and has been driven new lyx users away. Bundling is not totally a bad thing. Not only it will save users some installation time, it will save developers and users from many compatibility problems. For example, using the current lyx installer, all users will install the newest python, perl, convert etc but the new versions might not work with lyx. It will also save some configuration work since we know a working program is out there. I have written to MikTex mailing list and their respone about MikTex installation and bundling is that we can bundle a minimal MikTex (23M). When a new package is required, it will be downloaded automatically. A user also has the option of downloading every package after lyx/miktex is installed. Even if Miktex is too large to be bundled (?), python interpreter, convert.exe and aspell.exe should be bundled. These are essential tools that should be there with a working lyx installation. And because they are tools, nobody will complain they are not the latest version as long as they work all right. Although the developers may disagree, I am 100% sure windows users will welcome a bundle version of lyx. (This does not have to conflict with an upgrade version with only lyx). I can set up a poll in lyx-user list if this is still in doubt. The last question is that whether or not the developers are required, or willing, to please these 'ignorant' windows users.... Cheers, Bo
