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List:       kde
Subject:    Re: InstallShield for KDE?
From:       jfjellst () bayarea ! net
Date:       1999-11-04 6:15:19
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I'm been following this discussion and here are my 0.50 Norwegian kroner.

One of the facts of life is that Linux/UNIX will never be as easy as
Windows/Mac. It's a fact, because the design philosophy is different between
the two operating system types. Windows and Mac is basically a single user
system.  Even Windows NT is at its core a single user system.  *NIX is a
multi-user system.  Installation and usage of apps on *NIX is *different* than
on a single-user systems.

Why is this important?  As a developer, I can always assume that the user can
install my app in Windows. I can't make that presumption in *NIX.  I have to
check whether the user is root.

Couple of things:
InstallShield in Windows isn't popular because it makes it easy to install.
InstallShield is popular because it makes it damn easy to create the
installation process.
The reason some apps in Windows leave residue in the Registry, is because the
designer didn't account for them.  
Quite frankly, an IT manager who doesn't know how to use a package management
system, probably should get another job.  The *NIX package manager tells the
IT manager *EXACTLY* what gets installed and where. InstallShield does not do
that at all by default (as a developer, you have to manually turn on logging,
but the log file is not kept in a database like RPM does).

The solution is not a different packaging system, which KInstallShield
would eventually turn out into.  The solution is enhance RPM (or
dpg, I really don't know the Debian package system enough to tell what's
missing).

Yes, Timothy Butler is right.  When you install a package, the package manager
should figure out what is missing and install those packages, either by being
in the same directory, or with a pointer to a ftp site to where to find those
packages.  And uninstallation should have an option to remove all the packages
that depend on it.  But these are enhancements that should be put into RPM, not
by creating yet another package manager.  

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