Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:59:42 +0200 From: Jens Hatlak <hat...@rbg.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de> To: mechsys Subject: Re: Update Requested for: http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/solaris.html
mechsys wrote: > May I please request that you, as the designated point of contact, review and > update the "Mozilla Plugin Support on Solaris (SPARC)" page? I cannot make any direct changes to that site. Furthermore, I'm only the "designated point of contact" because I was the first and maybe only one who contacted the site owner and provided updated information concerning Sparc/Solaris. That was years ago when I was still active at university. Today, I no longer have access to any of these machines. I should also note that I never had access to a single x86 Solaris machine. > 1. The page name only defines applicability for Solaris SPARC: > > "Mozilla Plugin Support on Solaris (SPARC)" > > All four plugins vendors have separate binaries for Solaris X86. The page > name, Mozilla internal links, and meta-tags re search spiders should be: > > "Mozilla Plugin Support for Solaris SPARC and for Solaris X86" Please discuss that with the site owner. If you can provide information for x86 Solaris, then tell him not me. As I see it, the page is titled as such because I provided info for Sparc but no-one provided info for x86. And with info I mean reliable, tested info. As stated above, I never had access to a x86 Solaris machine. And since I see no sense in copying information from some other website without having checked whether it installs/works as stated, I will certainly not be the one to report anything like that to the site owner. > 2. All four plugins vendors have separate binaries for Solaris X86. Sun has > separate download links for Java on Solaris SPARC and Solaris X86. The other > three vendors appear to read the browser information and present the correct > binary from a common download page. Regardless, from a human factors > standpoint, an explicit link for each binary class would be brain useful. Explicit links are bound to change. Neither the site owner nor me have the time to re-check and update the links when they change. If you are willing to do that, please contact the site owner. > 3. The instructions are useful but inconsistent. Paths, permissions, link > permissions (great point!), and file locations are a larger issue, but > whatever the pattern, there are good reasons for it to be consistent across > plugins. Accordingly, the installation instructions for Adobe Acrobat Reader > should be standardized and replicated across all plugin instructions. There > is > much more to this than I have suggested here. (Ask me if it matters to you.) From my point of view, some is better than nothing. And there would be nothing if I hadn't contacted the site owner and asked him to put the information that I had verified on PluginDoc. If you want to improve what's there, feel free to make suggestions and ask the site owner to implement them. It's just that I am the wrong one to ask here. I do only know Sparc/Solaris and even there I cannot do more than tell from my experience and recollection. You know, everyone is free to contact the site owner. The fact that there is so little information on the PluginDoc Solaris page is a pretty good sign that there is just no-one who either knows more concerning the topic or is willing to share that information. > 4. Flash has finally moved from 7.x to 9.x , although it _still_ may not work > at major sites like CNN (which at least now is not solely Windows Media): > (...) > 5. The RealPlayer link is incorrect. RealPlayer is now supported for Solaris. > The current link points to a Mac OS-X version (which never worked for me), > with no hint that a Solaris version exists. The link below is the actual > download page: > (...) I understand that you tested the plugins from the sources you provided. If that is the case, feel free to contact the site owner and provide detailed instructions how to install and setup those. > 6. Do you have a developer or maintenance partner for plugin compatibility at > Sun? They really should have a designated point of contact to help you at > Mozilla get on top of the plugin issue. It is a major user experience deficit > for Solaris. Please let me know if you may wish my assistance in this regard. I never had a direct contact partner at Sun. All I did was searching the sites of the respective plugin vendors for Sparc/Solaris binaries and trying to figure out how to install them. All by myself. When I felt confident that I had done everything right I mailed the PluginDoc site owner my experiences. Since I was the only one who did that, he took my word for granted and put the information online. Some time later he asked me if he could add my email address to the list of contact persons and I said yes. That's all. I know that this cannot be understood just by visiting the page but I guess it's better than leaving the site owner in the position to answer questions about operating systems he never even saw running. Greetings, Jens -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
