MSI installer for KDE4

[Christian Ehrlicher]

> Quoting Jaroslaw Staniek <js at iidea.pl>:
<snip>
> > . I'll
> > try to explain this a bit more below.
> >
> >> I think what we should do is have redistributable kdelibs, kdepimlibs,
> >> etc binary packages mimicking the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages
> >> Microsoft makes available for Visual C++. Using side-by-side
> >> assemblies (SxS, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa376307.aspx
> >> ), these libraries would be shared by all KDE applications and thanks
> >> to the versioning capabilities SxS provides, it would even be possible
> >> to have KDE 4.1 and KDE 4.2 applications (for instance, Parley from
> >> 4.2 and Kate for 4.1) without kdelibs 4.1 and 4.2 clashing.
> >
> > Someone would need to make research how this could compatible with mingw
> > binaries, and how msvc and mingw binaries can live side-by-side. And
> whether
> > anything like this could be built without need for installing msvc. Also
> note
> > that people want to use cross-compilaton on Linux.
> 
> AFAIK SxS is not supported by MingW.
> 
> MSVC2005 allegedly works under wine, although that is not the ideal
> solution.
> 
So no need to discuss this idea further - the SxS stuff is the crappiest thing I've seen from M$ so far...

> >  > It could even offer you to download and install
> >> the package for you. This "KDElibs 4.1 redistributable package" would
> >> then contain KDElibs 4.1 and its 3rd party dependencies.
> >
> > Could you please explain how this is different (except naming) than   
> > the KDE on Windows installer?
> 
> Totally different
> 
> What you would have downloaded is a single application (KWord)  
> installer which contains the application binaries, as opposed to  
> generic installer which bundles nothing (the current KDE on Windows  
> installer).
> 
> In case you are offline, you would install the KDElibs redistributable  
> package and the KOfficeLibs redistributable package yourself, then  
> KWord. With the current WinKDE installer, you would need to mirror the  
> WinKDE repository, then tell the installer the location.
> 
> Offline installations would be as easy as dropping three files  
> (kdelibs4.1_redist_x86.exe, kofficelibs2.0_redist_x86 and  
> kword_2.0.exe) in one folder, then the user double clicks on  
> kword_2.0.exe and he's done.
> 
I don't see a big difference from the current way we do it - it's just packaged in fewer files.

> > We can bundle almost everything with individual packages but in turn the
> > packages would be big and their contents would be most likely redundant.
> 
> No need for this. What I propose is to bundle kdelibs, resources  
> needed by kdelibs and 3rd party libraries needed by kdelibs in the  
> kdelibs redistributable package. Same for kdepimlibs and kofficelibs.
> 
We can do this - but when e.g. libpng has a security flaw you have to download ~200MB just because of 500KB of changed code...

> >
> >> My point is the current installer works very well because it resolves
> >> dependencies and installs everything but it's not what a Windows user
> >> is used to and IIRC,
> >
> > i.e. is it too well designed, so they are scared? Could you provide any
> > rational reasons?
> 
> Too many options
> 
> When you want to install, say, Amarok, it automagically selects  
> dependencies, which immediately creates a "WTF is going on!?" feeling  
> into the user.
> 
Feel free to improve the ui - it's just an ui problem at all.
> 
> Why would I want to mirror the WinKDE repository, wasting space and  
> providing an intricate directory hierarchy when I can do something as  
> simple as dropping kde4.1_redist_x86.exe and parley_4.1.exe in a folder?
> 
Same as above - you've to download 200MB just because of an issue in a small lib somewhere inside the packages. Then we can mimic Nero/Ahead with their 180MB Nero Burning Rom update from 1.2.3.4 to 1.2.3.5 ... 
 
> I think the installer is very good but not perfect. IMHO, the more we  
> mimic the way users are familiar with to install applications, the  
> more users we will have.
> 
What's different with other installers? You have to choose one or two options, select what you want (normale, all, user-defined) and you're gone.

And because of your NSIS-apporach with cmake - we need something much more complex than just packaging all together and putting it into an executable to make things work.


Christian
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