Re: Did GNOME go 1.0 too early?

[Havoc Pennington <rhp zirx pair com>]

On Wed, 3 Mar 1999, Andy Kahn wrote:
> 
> that's 39 separate files.  who on EARTH (especially those non-technical
> users) want to go about installing 39 separate files?  (i'm not going
> to go into how complicated the installation instructions are from the
> "old" getting started guide...)
> 

They aren't supposed to, they are supposed to install the packages that
come with their distribution. With Debian you can literally just type:

apt-get install gmc gnumeric gnome-panel gnome-control-center

(add any other apps you like, and I'm not sure I have the names exactly
right.)

This will perform the download and get all the necessary libraries
automatically. Not hard. It works today for Gnome .99.3, 1.0 is almost
ready but not on the main site yet.

Red Hat isn't as nice, though I hear it can be if you get rpmfind.

With either one it's pretty easy if you get the CD.

Anyway, you aren't wrong that the web site instructions could be improved,
but I don't think the number of files is a valid criticism; it just
reflects the number of applications and features Gnome has.

Havoc