Slashdot Mirror

Try this link for Wine.

http://www.winehq.org/

It was just a typo, but thanks for correcting anyway.

Incidentally, I've made a standalone installer using the BitRock InstallBuilder.
The resulting package is neat, small (318 MB), includes it's own copy of wine, and even comes with an uninstaller.

If I find a suitable hosting solution I will share the link here.

Cheers, XnPlater

Maybe they need to talk to these guys :

http://bitrock.com/

BitRock.

I've not explored it much further than my own basic needs, but it seems to meet the criteria you've listed.

Screenies
Comparison to InstallShield.
Overview (highlighting some of your concerns)

Hope this helps.

BitRock.

I've not explored it much further than my own basic needs, but it seems to meet the criteria you've listed.

Screenies
Comparison to InstallShield.
Overview (highlighting some of your concerns)

Hope this helps.

BitRock.

I've not explored it much further than my own basic needs, but it seems to meet the criteria you've listed.

Screenies
Comparison to InstallShield.
Overview (highlighting some of your concerns)

Hope this helps.

BitRock.

I've not explored it much further than my own basic needs, but it seems to meet the criteria you've listed.

Screenies
Comparison to InstallShield.
Overview (highlighting some of your concerns)

Hope this helps.

Of course you can make it like that. You're just ignorant. The main reason that you don't do that is that with most (pretty much all nowadays) distros the main installation path is to just open the package manager, click on the thing you want to install, and it downloads and installs (and updates on a routine basis).

However if you can't get it through the package manager, there are many solutions you can use, most notably Bitrock InstallBuilder which, though proprietary, can be used for free with open source programs. I have used it myself and find it extremely easy to use, extremely quick, and pretty well painless. The final installer also works cross-distro.

So please don't spread misinformation when you don't know for yourself, when all you're spreading is your own guesses. Ignorance is not an excuse.

I'm not badmouthing something when I don't have the information, I'm simply pointing out the accurate fact that gaming on Linux is a lot more complex than gaming on Windows and almost always involves some user input and/or configuration beyond "click, click, click, play". The fact that the example that you mention involves dropping down to the command line only proves my point.

Package managers are ok for system libraries, etc. and those are provided by the distributions themselves. For third party software (games, bug tracking, etc.) that needs to work in many different distributions, it is better to just distribute a tarball or use standalone installers such as autopackage or BitRock

For independent software development and running your software business:
Eric Sink
Joel on Software (read business of software newsgroup)

For inexpensive, reliable order processing:
SWREG
ShareIt

Installers:
NSIS (Windows)
BitRock (Linux, Windows)

Icons/Website:
Go to KDE Look find some artwork you like and contact the author.

For alternatives, checkout:

Bitrock: kind of "Installshield" for linux
Installshield multiplatform: The actual Installshield for Linux (written in Java and a bit ugly)
Autopackage: Kind of universal installer

This gets very close http://www.bitrock.com to what you want. Free license for open source projects

* Software Packaging. This is a huge pain in the ass for most commercial vendors of any Linux software

Actually it's not so bad - commercial software tends to be mostly statically linked or to come with the right DSOs included. Programs like Loki Setup or BitRock can make pretty NSIS/InstallShield type installers.

The problems we have with software packaging are mostly problems for open source projects.

* Linux Binary Portability. This is the bane of all vendors releasing any closed-source software for Linux.

I'd venture that this isn't as problematic as you think it is - having done a ton of research into this, Linux binary portability is not really any worse than the difference between Win98 and WinXP, for instance.

Yes, the rollout of NPTL is being done badly, and this is unfortunate, but the vast majority of apps don't suffer any problems at all.

This one was just released : Bitrock Installer You can find many others in Freshmeat. Software developers just need to start using them

With stuff like : Easy to use installers Office compatibility Easy to use productivity software It is just a matter of time