Re: Some things GNOME really needs

[Victor Bogado da Silva Lins <bogadofuture openlink com br>]

	All right, all right. I guess you got me. Maybe the executable
installer is not such a good idea after all. :-) 

	But I think that gnome, gnu or linux (I am not shure anymore if this
belogs here, but I do think that installing/uninstall programs is a big
factor in user friendness), should have a standard and easy way to
install stuff. Today we can install the gnome stuff in three (or more)
diferent ways. Depending in witch way you choose you might end up with
diferent versions. The worst part is that the only way to install that
is not plataform/distribution dependent is the tar.gz install that is
VERY HARD for the end user (even thougth doing config; make; make
install; is not THAT HARD), and does not have a clean uninstall
procedure (unless you keep the source arround, that would at least duble
the requirements of space).

	In a ideal world mr. user could get a file (tar.gz?) run a
super-installation-wizard (with a dbl-click on the file in the gmc) and
buum you have a new installed program (in the realy ideal world the
program would ask for the root passwd, so that the installation
procedure could have been started by an ordinary user), with a icon in
the foot menu and all. But I agree that, this is too hard to implement
since it would have many possible break points. 

	In today's world the user has to know what package type his
distribution uses. Get the latest version of the software, if available,
in the distrib format and then install. Not very good.

	Ok there is the gnorpm that helps a lot, but there is one small problem
with it. first it is RPM, even thoght I use red hat I don't expect that
everyone would use, and second he does not work in way people think. Let
me explain this second better:

	How do mr. user install a new program in his system most of the time?

	Mr. user is browsing the web and finds the 'a' program that does
everithing he ever wanted, make dinner, washes dishes, make coffe and
laundry (boy I need this program). Mr user then donwload 'a' and install
the program.

	With Gnorpm Mr. user have to stop browsing go to gnorpm and search for
the 'a' program with the web find (otherwise gnorpm would not find the
dependences of the file making thing even harder since the RPM complains
that a file is missing and does not say where you could find this file).
If this is successful mr user could go back to the browser.


	There is a few problems I see with the gnorpm procedure, 1st the user
could not download the file directly from the source (the file mus be in
a rpmfind repository). 2nd the user must stop the browsing to install
the program, usualy he could simply download a file and install it later
(even after he disconnect). 3rd There is no connection between where he
finds the file (web site) and where he will install (the gnorpm web
find), so he may have saw in the web the features of 'a 1.0.2.33721' but
when he goes to the gnorpm he we'll be presented with several versions
of 'a' that are not necessary 'a 1.0.2.33721' and worst he may even be
presented with several diferent distribution of 'a 1.0.2.33721' witch
make things even harder.

	So my point is things are not good in this area right now, in fact in
my opinion they are very bad. A single easy way of installing software
would greatly help users to migrate. This easier way must be simple and
standard across plataforms and suport deb/rpm/xyz packages db. It could
be not optimal, I mean a experienced user could install the software in
a better cleaner way then the standard procedure, but it should allow
complete uninstation in a simple standard way.

	I had the idea of the library (it could be a script language), but
Miroslav made his point very well and I agreed that this idea does have
problems. any have other ideas?
	
--
"You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland,
and I'll show you how deep the rabit hole goes", Morpheus.
 
[]'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins