[Scribus] Windows Installer

[Craig Bradney]

On Tuesday 14 March 2006 16:39, Philipp Wagner wrote:
> Craig Bradney wrote:
> > On Monday 13 March 2006 22:03, Philipp Wagner wrote:
> >>Hi,
> >>I have a small suggestion for the Windows installer. Would it be
> >>possible, to have a check at the beginning of the installer if
> >>GhostScript (new enough version) and the GDI+-lib is installed and if
> >>not, grab it from the internet and install it first? A lot of windows
> >>user are not used to read a page of instructions first before installing
> >>a software package, so I got already a couple questions from friends to
> >>explain to them how the installation works (well, some of them didn't
> >>understand english and so weren't able to understand the instruction
> >>page on the homepage).
> >
> > I'm not sure exactly what we can do there. We could even include GDI+,
> > but we decided due to its distribution license, that *distributing it*
> > clashed with our licenses enough to not do so. You have to go click on
> > their special sign your life away page, or get it from some other
> > source..
> >
> > We can probably put a check in though.
>
> Well, I do not vote for including GDI+ or GS (it increases the package
> size without need for most of the people), too. But if the licence GDI+
> does not forbid grabbing it from the internet during the installation
> process and installing it right away (and I don't think it does/could),
> the scribus installer should grab it without having the user open his
> browser first and install it manually.
> GDI+ is not distributed under GPL or any other open source licence,
> sure, but still I think usability is a higher goal than some ideas of
> not wanting to "mix" non-open-source with OS-licenced software. There's
> no win for anyone by not including these two (required/almost required)
> packages in the installer (including is not distributing it with it, but
> downloading it if needed).

Usability must suffer if the distribution license is not compatible. It must 
also suffer if MS forces the user to click on a page or fully register your 
Windows within their windows or MS online update system to be able to 
download it (so us grabbing a URL might not be possible). AFAIK, any other 
download means by them is not "allowed". GDI+ however is included with XP 
anyway, its only those running 2K that have the issue.

Craig

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