Re: [Fsfe-uk] An ignorant question?

[Robin Green]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2003 at 10:45:45AM +0100, Neil Darlow wrote:
> Very probably but contrast the ability for Joe Public to buy a copy of e.g. 
> Sage or QuickBooks, install it and be up and running within half an hour with 
> the need to install apache, MySQL and SQL Ledger and configure them before 
> being able to start working.

Nothing stopping people from writing an all-in-one installer script for all 
that.
It could set up apache and MySQL on non-standard ports so as not to conflict
with existing instances.
(Firewalls shouldn't be an issue... any firewall administrator who thinks that
something is safe on port 80, but magically becomes not safe when running on any
other port, needs their head examined.)
That would be potentially wasteful of system resources, but users could
be offered two options, where applicable: the "Safe, easy, don't bother me with
technicalities" option, or the more efficient "Use the running Apache and MySQL
servers" option.

> Let's not forget these are people who wouldn't have a clue how to install a 
> RPM and yet we're advocating this as a solution.

I advocate using your distro install CDs if you still have them to install 
packages,
rather than downloading 15Mb or so of redundant stuff you already have (as 
tends to
happen with Win apps). Some people still pay per minute for Internet access, or
live in places (e.g. parts of poor countries) that don't have very good 
Internet access yet,
etc. If it costs the user time and potentially money to download these 
dependencies,
and if it costs the server operator money for bandwidth, it makes sense for the
distributor to offer a package WITHOUT all the dependencies bundled inside it.

Again, there's no reason why the above can't be part of the install scripts. In 
fact,
on Debian, this precise thing, even down to telling you which number CD to 
insert,
is already automated, if you install from CDs. (I don't use Debian, I'm just 
saying.)

-- 
Robin

Governments do not exist to provide lucrative contracts for proprietary software
developers.