Installation framework
While using Linux in the past I come across its major drawback; its lack of support for automated Installers.
For professionals it might not be a major point, but for ordinary users it is major point. Average user installs more packages every day than he used to do couple of years back.
Windows has its own installation framework known as MSInstaller. This installer makes installation standardised across Windows platform. Also further installation packaging software such as InstallShield and Wise installation are available in the market. They make experience of user very easy. Complicated routines such as identifying current system OS, memory and other peripherals, disk space available, previous version of software package in the system, licensing terms etc are handled by script internally without requiring any expert knowledge during installation.
When it comes to server/client installation and multiple package installation (like installing drivers, db connections, database engines etc), it need to do more work in background and less in foreground.
Current Linux installation is very complicated. Also different distributions are required for different Linux OS and versions. While installing there is no GUI, making it more difficult. Typical user is not ready to do 5% of dirty work compare to professionals.
Software application creators should be able to create standard installation package with an ease. It should be very easy to select its compatibility with multiple Linux distributions etc and file structure for each distribution should be automatically worked out based on distribution on system.
Need of an hour is to create such installation framework which can simplify this routine. I believe this framework can be created as open source add-on and installation packaging software can be created by either open source players or commercial players.
I would like to know your comments. Especially all Linux experts on this forum are invited to participate in this forum.
I believe creating this framework can help making Linux as viable option for end users.
Thank you Vinay, Arun and Raseel for your inputs.
Regards,
Vinayak
After doing some research on Vinayak's concern i found this.
One of the examples of standardization being implemented for almost major linux installations.
www.cnr.com
Utilizing 5 years of CNR development in one-click software delivery, CNR.com will provide a standardized process for finding, evaluating, installing, and updating desktop software for the most popular Linux distributions, both Debian and RPM based.
Launching in the 2nd Quarter of 2007, CNR.com will be a free on-line digital software warehouse and one-click delivery service designed to solve the complexity of finding, installing and managing software applications on your Linux desktop computer. CNR.com will be the most extensive resource available anywhere for desktop Linux software. Search from tens of thousands of Linux software products, packages and libraries by title, popularity, similar software, category, author, or function, and then install the software with just one click of your mouse. Learn more by clicking the links below...
Arun Tomar
Solution Enterprises
Thank you Arun and Vinay for your inputs.
Things are not yet clear here though.
If I write a software package in C and compile it for Linux, can I use one of these packages to create GUI installer within 15 minutes and make it ready to deploy?
Can I create a single installer which would install on major at-least 10 Linux OS?
Can a user download that installer run on his Linux OS and follow GUI prompts to finish installation in less than 5 minutes?
If your answer is Yes, then why so many popular companies do not use these installation creation packages?
Why a user is forced to open command line for installation task? Why a user has to go through answering so many questions and asked to refer to OS manual during process?
I know Linux has so many flavours of OS. Which makes task of creating single routine for all of them. But nothing is impossible.
We can certainly leave Linux alone (as Arun suggested). We can also leave it as development community OS only, but if we believe it provides many features which are greater use for mass population then we must act to change it. We must make it simplified for end users.
Ubuntu has certain features regarding installation however when I downloaded software packages such as VMWare, it provided highly complicated routine to install it. On top of it, it kept crashing.
A typical user is scared of command prompt itself. You cannot expect a user to provide intelligent inputs during installation process. Also they make lots of mistakes, a installation package must be robust and tolerant to such.
We also have to avoid problems faced in other OS (Windows) such as corrupted registry, left over files after un-installation process, other garbage files, corrupted files of other programs etc.
I am not alone. I went through many experts in this subject and lack of proper installation packages is considered as major hurdle in making Linux as mainstream OS.
You can say Linux is Linux, but do you want to leave it as it is or want to adopt to what market needs?
Also I am not comparing Linux against only Windows but I am comparing it against Apple-Mac as well.
I agree that the Linux installaion process needs to be standardized...for the dumb user.
In the world of Open Source Software, unlike in the MS world, the user is not considered to be completely dumb. He is a command-line user, and hence supposed to be a geek unless specified :-D .
The software packages are usually a tar ball of the entire source code.
So, ./configure, make , sudo make install, is STANDARD through ALL Distributions.
The kind of flexibility that configure options provide is unheard of in the MS software world.
Except for an superficial "Custom" option, more MS - software does not give any control to the user.
And as already mentioned apt-get, yu, Yast , etc. are already there to "make a choice" (a phrease absent in the MS Vocabulary) for installations of binaries.
And , anyways, all this is changing. More and more Distros are trying to appease the dumb user, so that he can convert from the MS monopoly to the open source world.
I'm sure by the time Ubuntu's next Release (Gawky Gander anyone ?) is out, or Freespires CNR matures, or Suse's YaST gains popularity or the Fedora guys find a way to make Yum less irritating or the rest of the world discovers Synaptic, the Linx Software installtion will be easier than MSInstaller.
Dear Vinayak,
First thing that i would like to say is Dude, Wake up. Forgive me,if i'm rude.
The world of linux is rocking man & have become far more mature & enterprise level distros. with all sorts of distribution around, sometimes it becomes confusing.
some Facts,
1. Yast installer of OpenSuse is one of the best GUI based installers in the linux os world. using yast gui control center you can pretty much control your entire os.
2. Apt-get is one of the most matured, easy to use installers usually found in Debian or Ubuntu distros etc.
others have been mentioned by vinayras is his comment.
plus one more thing... let linux be linux.... don't expect it to behave like windows ..developers are trying to make things simpler to use & manage.. besides be prepared to learn new things & the way things are done in linux.
last point, you'll find n no. of distros boasting about their features & benefits. choose a distro that suits your need (easy to use, manage, install software & support)... there are so many of them, u just have to choose the one.
regds,
Arun Tomar
Solution Enterprises
Hi,
There are some installers:
1) APT:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Packaging_Tool
2) YUM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Updater,_Modified
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/yum/
3) synaptic - Graphical Package Manager
http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/
They are very much useful. First two are command line, third one is a graphical.
Vinay Yadav
PHP specialist
http://www.vinayras.com