Windows Installer on OSNews

[Markus Hitter]

<http://www.osnews.com/story.php/19083/GNUstep-Windows-Installer>

GNUstep gets some publicity, this is great.


Going to GNUsteps web site <http://www.gnustep.org/experience/ 
Windows.html>, I think this could be phrased better.

Cite:

"The current installer is minimally usable and has only been tested  
in a few configurations (NT, XP). It does not work on 64-bit systems."

-> "The current installer is usable and has been tested on Windows NT  
and XP (32 bit)."

(With XP 32-bit you catch about 80% of the potential market already,  
most other packages don't even care about the other 20%.)


Cite:

"It most likely will not work if you don't have Administrator access.  
It also only sets things up correctly for the current user, not for  
any other users on the system."

-> "Administrator access is needed and things will be set up for the  
current user."

(This is pretty common on Windows)


Cite:
"User Installer
If you just want to run GNUstep applications GNUstep-User - Not  
available yet."

Well, if there's no User Installer yet, why do you distinguish it  
from the Developer Installer at all? Just talk about _the_ Installer.  
The working Installer, of course.


The reason I'm writing this is, this page perfectly demonstrates what  
I consider as one of the reasons why GNUstep gets so few public  
notification. Did you notice all the "not work", "minimally usable"  
and "not available"? About any other computer project in the world  
praises what works and how great and shiny everything is, but GNUstep  
is in a hurry to tell about what doesn't work, where you have to wait  
and where to expect failures. This is pointless.

People want to listen to great, working stuff. If the Installer works  
at all, this is an advantage over many other systems already. So,  
treat it like that.

Bugs are nasty, but many people won't even notice them. So why  
talking about and even putting emphasis on them? After all, bugs (if  
they appear at all) are a perfect chance to demonstrate GNUstep's  
well working and very responsive tracking system.

In case you get a User Installer ready, heck, that'd be great news.  
Nobody expected this, but GNUsteppers surprised with useability again!


Have fun,
Markus

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Dipl. Ing. Markus Hitter
http://www.jump-ing.de/