Re: The constraint to widespread adoption of syndication

Morbus Iff wrote:

>>Same sort of thing, although I have known several people (including
>>myself) to be unable to get amphetadesk to run under windows.
>>    
>>
>
>Had you ever emailed me about that? 
>
I don't think so. 

>I don't recall
>your name. Can't fix what I don't know about. 
>
That is true, and a fair comment.  I was not interested enough to spend 
a bunch of time troubleshooting the Amphetadesk (this was last fall).  I 
spent maybe a half hour trying to track down why stuff wasn't working & 
gave up, especially when several coworkers had also had trouble (we all 
tried around the same time). 

>The most
>prominent user error that I know of now (from an installation
>standpoint) is that Winzip is not configured to "respect
>the internal folder hierarchy". Sadly, it seems that to
>be "usable", I *must* use a .exe builder/installer, I *must*
>install myself into the registry, and I *must* insert myself
>into the Start menu, which is all things I absolutely abhor,
>especially since AmphetaDesk doesn't need any installation,
>nor does it insert anything into the registry,
>
Windows users are quite accustomed to running an installer, and have a 
program installed and configured.  Run the uninstaller, and the code is 
gone.  Easier than trying to unzip something, create shortcuts 
ourselves, and wondering if its safe to delete the files when there is 
no uninstaller.

Techies don't need an installer;  if the feature set looks interesting 
enough, we will get things going.  But its not always easy, and I feel 
that approach is not suitable for the mainstream.  I think any of the 
aggregators need an installer if they want a wide audience under 
windows.  Even unzipping to a folder and manually creating shortuts is 
beyond what most users are willing to do (an error prone as Morhpose 
wrote above).

I think for any program to be accepted beyond the realm of techies, it 
needs to install and uninstall according to the platform conventions 
(this bascically means windows installer for windows.  I have no idea 
about macs and unixen).

-- 
----
Doug Ransom
House for sale http://ransom.dyndns.ws/house



 

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