Mail Archives: cygwin/1998/02/19/16:35:47
Marty Leisner wrote:
>I would like the same thing with win95...instead of a bundled application,
>I'd like to see the pieces (binary and source) and understand their
>relationship to run, then install it manually.
>
>This is desirable, because I may put components on a samba share, and do
>the whole installation from the unix side...
Of course, the average PC user (probably 90% or more of the PC userbase)
would be totally incapable of installing software if it were done as you
suggest, so it's silly to propose such a thing. Since Windows 95 (by volume
the most significant Win32 platform) is targeted for the average user, and
not the professional software engineer or systems administrator, it's
unrealistic to think that installing software should require any
sophisticated understanding of the system.
Additionally, you would have trouble setting up registry entries from a Unix
box, which means, among other things, that you couldn't register COM objects
included in the software you were "installing".
And, needless to say, even if you and I could properly understand how to
install a complex application by hand, a lot of other people would make
mistakes and then use up a lot of the software supplier's tech support time
getting it straightened out. It doesn't take very many, or very long,
support calls to blow the profit on the sale of a single copy of most
software products.
This is not to suggest that automated installers necessarily get it right
every time under all conditions, but they usually do the job well enough.
Uninstallers are often a little flakier, but do usually manage to remove COM
registrations and program files.
Craig
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